A REC Solar joint venture has entered into a deal with US Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) for a 60 megawatt solar power purchase agreement.
The 60 megawatt North Star solar power plant in Mendota, Fresno County, California will be constructed with REC solar panels and the project is expected to be in operation by the end of the second quarter 2013.
Relatively unknown in Australia until recently, REC’s Peak Energy solar modules have been rapidly making an impact on the local home solar power market after national solar energy solutions provider Energy Matters became the first Australian company to offer the panels as an option for residential applications. REC is a Norway-base fully integrated solar company with close to 4,000 employees globally.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company is one of the largest natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. The company provides natural gas and electric service to approximately 15 million people in northern and central California.
PG & E has been very active in renewable energy integration over the last few years. In 2009, it’s energy mix consisted of nuclear generation (20.5 percent), large hydroelectric facilities (13.0 percent) and renewable energy resources (14.4 percent), such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and small hydro. The remaining portion came f from natural gas (34.6 percent), coal (1.3 percent), unspecified sources (15.0 percent), and other fossil-based resources (1.2 percent).
PG&E received approval for a five-year program to develop up to 500 MW of PV based solar power capacity in its northern and central California service area and also recently announced a series of contracts for up to 1,310 MW of solar thermal power.
PG&E also administers the California Solar Initiative, a program to create 3,000 megawatts of new, customer-installed solar capacity by 2017. The company says it paid USD $185 million in rebates for 94 MW of completed residential and commercial solar installations last year, more than 50 percent of the total solar applications submitted in California.
