Pacific Gas & Electric Adds Utility-Scale Solar Projects to Its Power Mix
San Francisco, June 27, 2007
Source: PG&EC press release
http://www.pge.com/news/news_releases/q2_2007/070627.html
Pacific Gas and Electric Company announced today it has entered into agreements with two developers of utility-scale photovoltaic solar power: Cleantech America LLC and GreenVolts, Inc. The agreements will deliver up to seven megawatts (MW) of utility-scale renewable solar energy for PG&E’s customers throughout Northern and Central California.
“These projects provide PG&E with a clean, reliable, and cost efficient way to deliver additional solar power to our customers,” said Fong Wan, vice president of Energy Procurement, PG&E. “By harnessing the power of the sun’s rays in a scalable way, we are taking a significant step towards reaching California’s renewable portfolio goal of supplying twenty percent of our customer needs with qualifying renewable energy by 2010.”
Under the agreements, the projects will be completed in 2009. Both projects utilize photovoltaic technologies to collect sunlight and convert it directly to electricity. The solar power plants will be located in close proximity to PG&E’s infrastructure and customer base to reduce transmission costs.
Cleantech America’s CalRENEW-1 project, located near PG&E’s Mendota substation in Fresno County, will provide PG&E with five megawatts of energy and will represent one of the largest pure photovoltaic facilities in the United States. Covering approximately 40 acres, the CalRENEW-1 project will serve as a peak solar facility, providing reliable zero-emission energy when it is most needed – at the hottest times of the day during the hottest months.
“We are very pleased to have reached an agreement with PG&E,” said Bill Barnes, CEO of Cleantech America, LLC. “Providing zero-emission green energy in San Joaquin Valley, an area long suffering from some of the worst air quality and high levels of associated health problems, makes good social, economic and environmental sense. This is the true potential of green photovoltaic solar energy.”
“The San Joaquin Valley applauds PG&E’s leadership in pursuing our state’s renewable energy and climate goals with environmentally clean solar power. We are particularly pleased with the proposed CalRENEW-1 project to be installed and operated by Cleantech America in Fresno County. The triple benefits of this project to air quality, energy self-sufficiency and job creation are a blessing for the Valley,” said Fresno Mayor Alan Autry.
The GreenVolts GV1 solar plant, to be located on eight acres in Tracy, California, will provide PG&E’s customers with an additional two megawatts of renewable power. The company’s patent-pending high concentration photovoltaic system concentrates 625 suns of energy onto a highly efficient solar cell and requires only half the land area of conventional flat panel photovoltaic technologies. The company’s complete systems approach reduces both the initial infrastructure cost and, even more importantly, the ongoing levelized cost of energy.
“When completed, the GV1 project will be the largest concentrator photovoltaic project in the world,” said Bob Cart, founder and CEO of GreenVolts, Inc. “Concentrators continue to hold the greatest promise for economical solar power by making solar energy cost competitive with natural gas during peak daytime hours. Ultimately, GreenVolts and solar power plants like GV1 help save utilities and their customers both time and money.”
The two agreements signed today are part of PG&E’s broader renewable energy portfolio. PG&E currently supplies 13 percent of its energy from qualifying renewable sources under California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program. With more than 50 percent of the energy PG&E delivers to its customers coming from generating sources that emit no or low carbon dioxide, PG&E provides among the cleanest energy in the nation.
PG&E is aggressively adding renewable electric power resources to its supply. In addition to solar contracts with Cleantech America and GreenVolts, PG&E recently announced a 25.5 MW contract with Western GeoPower, Inc. for a new geothermal energy facility in Sonoma County, California. PG&E is seeking regulatory approval of these first three renewable energy contracts resulting from PG&E’s 2006 RPS solicitation. PG&E is continuing discussions with additional bidders that made offers and were short listed in the 2006 RPS solicitation, and just received bids for additional renewable energy in its 2007 solicitation.
California’s RPS Program requires each utility to increase its procurement of eligible renewable generating resources by one percent of load per year to achieve a twenty percent renewables goal by 2010. The RPS Program was passed by the Legislature and is managed by California’s Public Commission and Energy Commission.
A leader in solar power, PG&E has interconnected more than 15,000 customer-owned solar-generating systems to the power grid – representing more than 110 megawatts and more than any other utility in the nation. Through the California Solar Initiative, the company will provide nearly $950 million in solar rebates to its customers.
For more information about Pacific Gas and Electric Company, please visit the company’s web site at www.pge.com