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Utilities add contracts to meet renewable-power goals
Sacramento Business Journal - by Celia Lamb Staff Writer
Friday, February 8, 2008

California's energy policies have generated a boom for renewable-power companies, and could catapult solar-thermal technology into the mainstream.

By 2010, 20 percent of the energy sold by Pacific Gas & Electric Co., Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. must come from renewable sources. PG&E was at about 12 percent in 2006, according to the most recent data from the Public Utilities Commission. Since 2002 PG&E has signed 33 contracts with renewable-energy businesses.

The contracts total 1,550 megawatts of renewable energy, enough for more than 1 million homes. But about 1,227 megawatts will come from power plants not yet built.

One of the biggest contracts is scheduled to come online in March 2011. Solel Solar Systems Ltd. of Israel plans to build a solar-thermal project over 6,000 acres of the Mojave Desert. The project will produce 554 megawatts, enough for 400,000 homes.

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