PG&E vows fivefold increase in solar use
PLANTS TO BE BUILT; WILL USE SUN, STEAM TO PRODUCE ENERGY
By Sarah Jane Tribble
Mercury News
In a historic boost for renewable energy, PG&E said Thursday it will increase its use of solar power nearly fivefold.
The Northern California utility agreed to buy at least 500 megawatts of solar energy, beginning in spring 2010, from LUZ II, one of the nation's largest solar power developers in the 1980s.
The deal calls for at least one 100-megawatt solar-thermal plant, which will use both the sun and steam to produce energy, to be built within four years. Several other plants will follow, said Charles Ricker, president of LUZ II's U.S. operations.
If completed, the amount of solar power produced in California would dwarf the 380 megawatts currently being produced by large-scale solar plants nationwide.
The project is also one of the biggest solar-thermal investments in the United States in 15 years and could herald a new era for the renewable energy, said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association in Washington, D.C.
``We're back!'' Resch said. ``Utilities are now embracing solar as a cost-effective technology for delivering high-quality, clean energy to consumers. We're, in many cases, going to be the lowest cost option for utilities.''
The LUZ solar-thermal plants will use reflecting mirrors, or heliostats, that will send concentrated sunlight to a collection point that will heat water, turning it into steam. That steam will provide the energy for a turbine that will produce energy, Ricker said. He declined to provide pictures or more detail of the process, saying it was proprietary information.
The company also doesn't know exactly where the plants will be built, but Ricker said they may not be in one location.
California utilities, pressed with rising natural gas prices and increasing demands for power, are turning to solar and other forms of renewable energy because of economics and political incentives, Resch said.
`Million Solar Roofs'
In January, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pushed his ``Million Solar Roofs'' plan through the California Public Utilities Commission, which included the largest investment in solar power of any state in U.S. history. The plan tacked a new fee of about $1.10 a month on utility bills to provide $3.2 billion in rebates over the next 11 years for people who install a solar roof on their home.
State regulators also set a goal for utilities to supply 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources, such as the sun and wind, by 2010. PG&E says about 13 percent of its power comes from renewable sources.
PG&E already has 12,000 residential and commercial customers who generate 88 megawatts of power with solar panels, which it said is more solar energy than any other utility in the country. One megawatt provides enough energy to power about 750 homes.
The company has also signed long-term contracts for renewable power, such as an agreement announced last week to purchase up to 169 megawatts of geothermal energy from Geothermal Company, and it is confident the plan announced Thursday will come to fruition, a PG&E spokesman said.
Both PG&E and LUZ declined to discuss the terms of the deal. However, LUZ said it was already in talks for financing.
LUZ, which is based near Houston, is a reincarnation of the firm that built nine solar-thermal plants in California between 1984 and 1991, before declaring bankruptcy. Building solar plants is often more costly than natural gas plants, experts say.
Market cooled in '90s
The solar industry's biggest growth came during the 1970s and 1980s, fueled by inflated gas prices and political incentives, such as rebates and research programs. Those benefits petered out in the 1990s when the nation's economy improved and as fuel prices stabilized, energy experts said.
But recent investments by federal and state governments nationwide have brightened the picture for solar, and Ricker said he believes the support is here to stay because high fuel and electricity prices are here to stay.
``This is a new reality, and a technology that can compete effectively with gas is a long-term solution.''
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