Pacific Gas & Electric Corp.'s PG&E Co. is one step closer to owning 50 megawatts of solar power and well on its way to owning 250 MWs of solar. The company announced last week that it completed the purchase of three sites for photovoltaic farms and that it was breaking ground on the projects, which should be complete by the third quarter of 2011.
Many of the large-scale developments going on in California, Arizona and Nevada are being done under power-purchase agreements, removing the risk of unexpected development costs from the utilities. But under this project, the company will own the sites, the equipment and the electricity produced, said spokesperson Jonathan Marshall.
One site, a 15 MW farm, is being developed by Solon, the other two are being developed by Cupertino Electric, Marshall said.
This is the first phase of a multi-year program, according to Marshall.
The company is using this program to get more solar online quickly.
This program compliments another 250 MWs of photovoltaics that will be added through long-term contracts with solar electric generators between 1 MW and 20 MWs in size.
And that's in addition to the large-scale solar projects under power-purchase agreements planned for other locations.
Those projects are more likely to face legal challenges, siting challenges and more, according to Marshall.
