In what is touted to be the largest solar deal in the world, Pacific Gas & Electric today announced that it has expanded a series of solar-power contracts with Oakland's BrightSource Energy for a total of 1,310 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 530,000 California homes during peak hours.
Peak hours in the state are usually from noon to 7 p.m.
The power purchase agreements, which will now include seven power plants, add to a previous contract the two companies struck last April for up to 900 megawatts of solar thermal power.
The deal with PG&E means BrightSource now has 2,610 megawatts under contract, which the company said is more than any other solar thermal company in the world and represents more than 40 percent of all large-scale solar thermal contracts in the United States.
"The solar thermal projects announced today exemplify PG&E's commitment to increasing the amount of renewable energy we provide to our customers throughout northern and central California," John Conway, senior vice president of energy supply for PG&E, said in a statement. "Through these agreements with BrightSource, we can harness the sun's energy to meet our customers' power requirements when they need it most — during hot summer days."
John Woolard, chief executive of BrightSource Energy, said in a statement that today's agreements "reflect the technological milestones that the BrightSource Energy team has achieved Advertisement over the past year. Our technology is setting the bar for efficient production of solar energy.''
BrightSource, which designs, builds, owns and operates solar thermal plants, will build the plants at a cost of at least $3 billion in the southwestern deserts of California, Nevada and Arizona. The company anticipates the first of those plants, a 110-megawatt facility at Ivanpah in eastern San Bernadino County, to begin operation by 2012.
BrightSource's founder and chairman is Arnold Goldman, whose now-defunct Luz International built nine solar plants in the Mojave Desert between 1984 and 1990. All of them are still operating.
BrightSource uses what it calls distributed power towers, or DPTs, in which sunlight from thousands of movable mirrors are concentrated to heat water to more than 1,000 degrees in a boiler to make steam. That steam feeds a turbine that makes electricity.
Today's announcement with PG&E follows an agreement the utility reached with Southern California Edison in March to purchase 1,300 megawatts, until then the largest solar contract ever, said BrightSource.
Since 2002, PG&E has entered into contracts for more than 20 percent of its future electric power deliveries from renewable sources. On average, half of the electricity PG&E delivers to its customers comes from carbon-free generating sources, making the company's energy among the cleanest in the nation.
Publicly owned California utilities such as PG&E must get 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2010, but they can meet the requirement with contracts if the projects go online by 2013. PG&E already has contracts in hand that exceed that 20 percent goal, said spokeswoman Jennifer Zerwer. She said PG&E gets 12 percent of its energy from renewable sources now, and expects that to increase to 14 percent by the end of the year.
Contact Tracy Seipel at tseipel@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5343.
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