RICHMOND — For more than 100 years, the Chevron refinery has operated off the San Francisco Bay in Richmond. Now, city officials are looking to evolve their city’s business footprint toward greener power. They’re not alone.
Opened in 1902, the refinery has led some to make concerted efforts to distance the city of more than 100,000 people from the fossil fuel industry, most recently through a short-lived ballot measure supported by activists who said funds would be needed to help envision a Richmond without a refinery.
A $550 million settlement between Richmond and the refinery, paid over a 10-year period, resulted in the measure being pulled from the November 2024 ballot.
Aside from charging one of the city’s largest taxpayers, some have also looked toward attracting clean energy businesses. The off-shore wind industry has risen as a potential option, with the city being awarded a $750,000 grant from the California Energy Commission in December to help with drafting an Offshore Wind Conceptual Planning Project.
“This planning effort represents a critical first step toward positioning the Port of Richmond as a potential host for future offshore-wind activities — an industry expected to generate thousands of high-quality jobs and substantial economic benefits,” read a staff report detailing the project.
Like Richmond, ports in Humboldt, Oakland, Benicia, Stockton, San Francisco and Redwood City, as well as private terminals in Antioch and Pittsburg, have also been identified in a study by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as potential offshore wind manufacturing and fabrication sites.
Companies like Viridi Parente, a bicoastal battery energy storage system manufacturer that opened in Richmond this past summer, have also been welcomed with open arms. With the support of a $9.3 million California Energy Commission grant, Viridi operates out of a 40,000-square-foot facility formerly home to its competitor Moxion Power, which laid off hundreds of employees and filed for bankruptcy in 2024.
Viridi offers battery energy storage system products that can either be installed in existing occupied facilities like industrial, medical, commercial, or municipal buildings, or trailered into temporary worksites or events.
Motivated by concerns for rising energy costs, stressed power grids and climate change, dozens of elected officials from across the country gathered in early December to tour the Richmond facility and learn more about what the technology can do.
“This is where the rubber meets the road. We’re the ones that have to manifest it,” said San Rafael Mayor Kate Colin, speaking to the pressure on city officials to implement state legislation, including renewable energy policies.
The road toward greener pastures is still unclear for Richmond and the greater region.
Viridi officials say the company plans to continue its expansion in Richmond, which will mean increasing staffing to meet growing demand for products.
Glydways, a company building small, electric, autonomous public transportation vehicles, is transforming an underutilized parking lot in Richmond into a testing ground. And renewable fuel company Raven SR plans to develop a plant in the city where organic waste will be converted into hydrogen fuel.
At the city government level, Colin and Esther Morales, director of innovation in Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s office, both said their respective cities are trying to understand how they can pursue renewable energy solutions while responsibly managing their budgets.
Meanwhile, the battle over state and federal government supported renewable energy projects continues with California officials and agencies supporting offshore wind initiatives while the Trump administration has taken steps to block wind energy projects through executive order and canceled grants worth $679 million, according to multiple news reports. Notably, those measures have been met by resistance and lost court battles.
For Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez, a world in which green businesses replace oil refineries is one to pursue. Martinez was a keynote speaker at the Dec. 3 Viridi event alongside Hawaii State Sen. Chris Lee and Viridi CEO Jon Williams.
“Chevron has shaped our economy and our neighborhoods for generations,” Martinez said. “Richmond is looking towards the future, where our economy is not dependent on a single fossil fuel employer. We are growing sectors that create cleaner hair, good jobs, and long term stability.”