California Utility PG&E to Open Wallet for Solar Technology
January 22, 2009 by editor
Filed under Solar News, Technology
INDIAN WELLS, Calif.–Pacific Gas & Electric, one of the country’s largest and most progressive utilities, will invest directly in solar power plants and solar panels distributed in different California communities.
CEO Peter Darbee said the move represents the first time that PG&E–already a large purchaser of solar and other renewable energy technologies–will build and own solar installations. Right now, the utility purchases clean energy from third parties.
Darbee mentioned the solar initiative during a discussion on Wednesday here at the Clean-tech Investor Summit.
Peter Darbee (left), the CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric is interviewed by venture capitalist Ira Ehrenpreis at Clean-tech Investor Summit.
He declined to specify how much the investment would be but said that it would be “significant.” After his talk, he acknowledged it would comparable in size to Southern California Edison’s program to spend $850 million over five years to put solar panels on commercial rooftops.
California utilities are some of the most important purchasers of clean technologies and vital customers for a raft of energy technology developers. The state mandates that utilities get 33 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa Announces Big Solar Initiative
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announces a solar initiative that would create up to 400 green jobs over the next 3 years.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other municipal leaders unveiled a green energy initiative Tuesday by the city’s utility that they predict will create as many as 400 union jobs over the next three years to install and maintain solar panels on city buildings and other structures around Los Angeles.
Villaraigosa promoted the new effort as part
of a larger clean-growth strategy during an appearance atop a Los Angeles Convention Center parking garage with solar panels as a backdrop. He was flanked by five members of California’s congressional delegation, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-East Los Angeles).
