The Butte Utility-Scale Solar Guide is a component of the PowerButte initiative and is a valuable resource for anyone interested in learning more about utility-scale solar facilities within unincorporated Butte County, including landowners, developers, community members, and decision-makers. The Guide includes sections regarding Butte County's Vision for utility-scale solar facility development , Guiding Principles, Entitlement Process, State and Local Context, Opportunities and Constraints, Recommended Standards and Design Guidelines, a GIS Mapping Tool, Community Benefits and Future Trends/Creative Approaches.
Butte County is in the process of updating various documents to comply with State sustainability initiatives. These documents include Butte County’s Climate Action Plan and Climate Adaptation Plan (2014), General Plan Health and Safety Element (2010) and the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (2014). Visit this site in order to learn more about these updates, including a Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment, and ways Butte County is increasing its preparedness for impacts from climate change.
Butte County’s CivicSpark Fellow, Molly Marcussen, with the help of Chico State’s Geography 506 class, and County staff have been conducting a vulnerability assessment on the impacts that climate change poses to Butte County. The work they are doing is supporting SB 379 regulations which requires that cities and counties update their General Plan to include climate change adaptation and resilience in the safety element of their General Plans. Molly and the class held a public forum on December 6, 2017 at CSU Chico's Colusa Hall to discuss the key findings on this assessment. At this forum, Molly presented the future climate projections data found on Cal-Adapt as well as the top climate change impacts. After Molly’s discussion students and others broke into small groups and talked about some potential adaptation strategies to become more resilient to climate change impacts.
CSU Chico's This Way to Sustainability Conference XIII, Sustaining Our Future, took place March 15-16, 2018. Butte County's own CivicSpark Fellow Molly Marcussen spoke on climate change adaptation and resiliency strategies at this conference. Presentation
Butte County adopted a Climate Action Plan (CAP) on February 25, 2014. The CAP implements the County’s recently adopted General Plan by providing goals, measures, and actions to improve quality of life in the County. The CAP contains programs and actions that are designed to help the County sustain its natural resources, grow efficiently, ensure long-term resiliency to a changing environmental and economic climate, and improve transportation. The CAP also supports statewide greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals identified in Assembly Bill (AB) 32 and Senate Bill (SB) 375...MORE INFO
PACE programs are implemented in Butte County to assist property owners with financing solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, water conservation and energy efficiency projects...MORE INFO