PG&E harnesses 230 MW solar project from NextLight

Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG) signed a contract today with a subsidiary of NextLight Renewable Power for 230 megawatts of solar photovoltaic power, marking a another addition to the San Francisco, Calif.-based utility’s string of solar deals.

The contract with NextLight subsidiary AV Solar Ranch 1 is expected, on average, to generate 592 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity annually for PG&E customers in the northern and central California. This is equivalent to the yearly consumption of 90,000 average homes, according to a news release.

The project, located in Antelope Valley, Calif., is expected to feature commercially proven PV technology. The site is slated to use PV panels installed on ground mounted, single-axis trackers. Power delivery is planned to begin in 2011, with full capacity to be reached by late 2012.

“This agreement will help increase the amount of clean energy we provide to our customers and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said John Conway, PG&E’s senior vice president of energy supply, in the release.

Since 2002, PG&E has signed contracts for more than 20 percent of its upcoming electric power deliveries to come from renewables.

BrightSource Energy has plans to fulfill 1.3 GW of that power, thanks to seven solar thermal power-purchase agreements BrightSource signed with PG&E (see PG&E upgrades BrightSource deal to 1.3GW and PG&E to get 900 MW of solar thermal from BrightSource).

And PG&E is still seeking additional renewable energy. In March, PG&E opened the bidding process for its solar energy plan to own up to 250 MW of solar PV generation, in addition to 250 MW purchased from third-party developers (see PG&E opens bidding for 500 MW solar program in California).

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