Clean Energy Solutions

PG&E proudly delivers some of the nation's cleanest energy to our customers. And we are planning for the future by exploring new technologies that harvest energy from the sun, ocean waves, tidal currents, and agricultural waste. We are also actively involved in investing in state-of-the-art, cleaner sources of fossil fuel-based power to meet growing demand.

Delivering Low-Emission Energy

PG&E serves 5 percent of the country's population, yet we emit less than 1 percent of the total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with the nation's electricity production. On average, approximately half of the electricity PG&E delivers to its customers comes from a combination of renewable and greenhouse gas-free resources.

Wind Power

PG&E customers benefit from more than 90 MW of wind energy generated from an Iberdrola Renewables site in Sherman County, Oregon. Photo courtesy of Iberdrola Renewables.

The power mix we provided to our customers in 2008 consisted of non-emitting nuclear generation (22 percent), large hydroelectric facilities (16 percent) and renewable resources (14 percent), such as wind, geothermal, biomass and small hydro. The remaining portion came from natural gas (39 percent), coal (8 percent), and other fossil-based resources (1 percent).

Investing in Renewables

PG&E has a long history of developing, generating and purchasing renewable power. We are aggressively adding more renewables to our power mix under California's renewable portfolio standard and now have contractual commitments to have more than 20 percent of our future deliveries come from renewables.

Cow Power

"Cow power" is one of the newest and most innovative ways we are realizing our renewable energy goals. Last year, PG&E and BioEnergy Solutions began operating the first project in California that is delivering natural gas to a utility using methane produced from animal waste at Vintage Dairy in Fresno County.

We continue to explore other pioneering technologies:

PG&E can also now purchase power from customers who install eligible renewable generation up to 1.5 MW in size. Customers can choose a full "buy/sell" option, which means PG&E will purchase all of the electricity their facility generates, or they can choose to use some of the electricity for their own needs and PG&E will purchase only the excess. To participate, customers and PG&E both sign a standard power purchase agreement and the customer must arrange to interconnect to PG&E’s grid. There are two separate tariffs available to make such sales—one for eligible public water and wastewater customers and one for all other customers with eligible, renewable facilities. The California Public Utilities Commission has declared that participating customers are not eligible for net metering, or for rebates from PG&E's Self-Generation Incentive Program or the California Solar Initiative.

Harnessing the Sun

PG&E recently announced plans for a five-year program to develop up to 500 MW of clean solar photovoltaic power in our northern and central California service area, one of the largest undertakings of its kind in the country.

PG&E has also announced a series of contracts with BrightSource Energy, Inc., for up to 1,310 MW of solar thermal power—one of a number of landmark solar projects.

El Dorado Energy Solar Facility

Located on more than 80 acres, the El Dorado Energy solar facility will generate up to 23 GWh of renewable energy annually, equivalent to the amount of energy needed to serve more than 3,360 residential homes annually. Photo courtesy of Sempra Generation.

Benefiting our customers further, PG&E administers the California Solar Initiative, an ambitious program designed to boost the amount of customer-installed solar capacity in California. The goal of the statewide program is to install 3,000 megawatts by 2017. PG&E paid more than $99 million in rebates for 97 MW of completed residential and commercial solar installations last year. This accounted for more than 60 percent of the total solar applications submitted in California. Learn more about what we do with solar energy.

Solar Energy

PG&E leads the nation by hooking up more than 30,000 solar-generating customers to the electric grid.

Investing in Cleaner Conventional Sources

Although energy efficiency and renewable energy are playing larger roles in our plans to meet future demand, investment in new conventional generation facilities is also necessary to meet our customers' needs.

PG&E’s new Gateway Generating Station in Contra Costa County, the first power plant built by PG&E in nearly 20 years, will yield at least 35 percent less CO2 for every megawatt hour produced compared to older plants and uses “dry” cooling, which results in 97 percent less water and discharges 96 percent less wastewater than a traditional “wet” cooled plant.

We have also broken ground on the Colusa Generating Station, a 657 MW power plant expected to begin operation in 2010. The facility will serve nearly half a million homes using the latest technology and environmental design, including dry cooling technology and cleaner burning turbines to reduce CO2 emissions by 35 percent relative to older plants. Additionally, our 163 MW Humboldt Bay Generating Station, to be completed in 2010, will employ technology to produce 80 percent fewer ozone precursors and 30 percent less CO2 than the current facility at the site, while also eliminating the need for “once-through” cooling.

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2009

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