California Utility Signs Agreement for 10 Megawatts from Thin-Film Solar Facility
California utility Pacific Gas and Electric announced yesterday it is signing a 20-year agreement to purchase the first 10 megawatts of electricity from Sempra Energy’s El Dorado Solar project near Boulder City Nevada.
The plant was built by Tempe, Arizona-based Firsr Solar using thin film solar panels made of low-cost cadmium tellurium as the material converting sunlight to electrical energy, requiring only 1% of the silicon used in crystalline solar cells. The El Dorado unit is North America’s largest thin-film solar plant, and has plans to expand by another 50 megawatts next year, all part of Sempra’s plan to eventually produce 500MW of thin-film solar power, CEO Michael Altman told Reuters, adding “The size and scope of this new solar generation facility clearly demonstrates that we can build projects on a scale that helps utilities meet their renewable energy goals”.
El Dorado will begin delivering power on January 1st, generating up to 23.2 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy annually – enough power to satisfy the yearly energy needs of 3,360 of PG&E’s residential customers.
“Solar energy is a reliable and environmentally-friendly way to help meet California’s peak energy demands,” said Jack Keenan, chief operating officer for PG&E. “Through our partnership with Sempra Generation, we will significantly increase the amount of solar energy we provide to our customers in 2009.”
Grid parity
Grid parity is something of a “holy grail” for renewable energy – the point where it becomes no more expensive the conventional power sources. Greentech Media reports that financial analyst Pacific Crest recently cited the El Dorado project as an example of solar power at grid parity, calling it a “milestone”.
PG&E working to meet California’s mandate
Even though power delivery from the plant begins on January 1st, the power purchase agreement has yet to be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, whose next regular meeting is January 29th.
PG&E will request that the commission expedite the process, hoping for approval by May 7th. Until the commission does sign-off on the agreement, the utility will pay daily index market prices for the power instead of the contract price. Until approval is finalized, PG&E will also not be able to include the solar-generated electricity as part of the renewable energy state mandate that investor-owned utilities to get 20% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010, and 33% from renewables by 2020.
The approval process includes a public comment period, and if the approval does not to through by May 7th, Sempra may terminate the contract.
My bets are that California is serious about meeting its mandate and that this project, and many others like it in the works, are essential to acheiving that goal. I expect the commision will approve the power purchase agreement in time.
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About the Author
Tom Schueneman is an online publisher, editor, and freelance writer. He is the founder of GlobalWarmingisReal.com and the History Blog Project, as well as publisher and site director for the HippieMagazine.com. Tom also contributes to numerous environmental blogs, including TriplePundit, Ecopolitology, Sustainablog, and Planetsave. Tom's work has led him to Europe, Africa, Latin America, Canada, the South Pacific, and across the United States. His home base is San Francisco, California.
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