Oakland topped a list of U.S. cities using renewable energy, with 17 percent of its power coming from solar, wind and geothermal sources.
Oakland beat out cross-bay rival San Francisco, which tied with Sacramento and San Jose for second place in the survey by SustainLane, which was released on Monday. Those three cities each get 12 percent of their power from renewable sources.
San Francisco-based SustainLane surveyed the 50 largest cities in the United States for this report.
San Diego ranked fifth, with 8 percent of its municipal energy coming from renewable sources, and Los Angeles was seventh, with 5 percent.
SustainLane attributed California cities' high ranking to the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard, which set minimal requirements in 2002 for utility purchases of renewable energy for the state's electric grid. That standard requires a 20 percent renewable-energy total for the state's utilities by 2020.
