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Calif Regulators OK PG&E Contract For Space-Based Solar Power
By Cassandra Sweet
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- California regulators Friday approved a long-term contract between PG&E Corp.'s (PCG) utility and developers of a speculative technology that would beam 200 megawatts of solar power to earth from outer space.
Under the 15-year contract, Solaren Corp., of Manhattan Beach, Calif., has agreed to ship 850 gigawatt-hours of solar power a year starting in 2016, doubling that amount in later years. The power would be sent by radio frequency from an earth-orbiting satellite to a receiving station in Fresno, Calif. The energy-conversion technology has beenused by communications satellites for 45 years on a much smaller scale, Solaren said.
PG&E wouldn't disclose the cost of the proposed 15-year contract, but said it would be above-market, more than 12.9 cents a kilowatt-hour, according to documents filed Friday with the California Public Utilities Commission.
PG&E and other California utilities are required to use renewable sources for a fifth of the power they sell by 2010, ramping up to one-third of their retail power by 2020. The requirements are part of the state's 2006 plan to combat climate change.
Because Solaren's technology is untested, raising "concerns regarding the viability of the project," PG&E can't rely on the contract to comply with its renewable energy requirements until construction begins on the project and the CPUC gives additional approval, the agency said.
The contract power price is above the CPUC's benchmark renewable energy price, which starts at 12.9 cents akilowatt-hour for 15-year contracts that start in 2016.
-By Cassandra Sweet, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6468; cassandra.sweet@dowjones.com
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=gyIeLruqfDw8oTeTiQmhBg%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 20, 2009 16:53 ET (21:53 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- California regulators Friday approved a long-term contract between PG&E Corp.'s (PCG) utility and developers of a speculative technology that would beam 200 megawatts of solar power to earth from outer space.
Under the 15-year contract, Solaren Corp., of Manhattan Beach, Calif., has agreed to ship 850 gigawatt-hours of solar power a year starting in 2016, doubling that amount in later years. The power would be sent by radio frequency from an earth-orbiting satellite to a receiving station in Fresno, Calif. The energy-conversion technology has beenused by communications satellites for 45 years on a much smaller scale, Solaren said.
PG&E wouldn't disclose the cost of the proposed 15-year contract, but said it would be above-market, more than 12.9 cents a kilowatt-hour, according to documents filed Friday with the California Public Utilities Commission.
PG&E and other California utilities are required to use renewable sources for a fifth of the power they sell by 2010, ramping up to one-third of their retail power by 2020. The requirements are part of the state's 2006 plan to combat climate change.
Because Solaren's technology is untested, raising "concerns regarding the viability of the project," PG&E can't rely on the contract to comply with its renewable energy requirements until construction begins on the project and the CPUC gives additional approval, the agency said.
The contract power price is above the CPUC's benchmark renewable energy price, which starts at 12.9 cents akilowatt-hour for 15-year contracts that start in 2016.
-By Cassandra Sweet, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6468; cassandra.sweet@dowjones.com
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=gyIeLruqfDw8oTeTiQmhBg%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 20, 2009 16:53 ET (21:53 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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