The newest numbers show that California’s three investor-owned utilities (IOUs) were at 20.6 percent renewables at the end of 2011. With approximately 17 percent at the end of 2010, they fell somewhat short of meeting the state’s 2002 mandate that they obtain 20 percent of their power from renewables by the end of 2010.

Governors Schwarzenegger and Brown and the majority of the state’s lawmakers were encouraged enough to institute a new Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requiring all state electricity providers obtain one-third of their power from renewables by 2020. It will certainly grow California renewables.

But will the new, more ambitious RPS continue to grow the use of wind, solar and other renewables?

The Clean Energy Race; How Do California’s Public Utilities Measure Up?, an analysis of the 2010 numbers from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), showed an even better response to the 20 percent mandate on the part of California’s ten biggest publicly owned utilities (POUs).

via Stat of the Day: California’s Big Utilities at 20.6 Percent Renewables in 2011 : Greentech Media.