Clean Energy Solutions

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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 five percent of the country's population, yet we emit less than one percent of the total carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions associated with the nation's electricity production. On average, more than half of the electricity we deliver to customers comes from sources which emit no CO₂, and an increasing amount comes from renewable sources of electricity.

In 2006, the power mix we provided to our customers consisted of non-emitting nuclear generation (24 percent), large hydroelectric facilities (22 percent) and renewable resources (12 percent) such as wind, geothermal, biomass and small hydro.

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 program and are on target to exceed 20 percent under contract or delivered by 2010.

We continue to explore other pioneering technologies:

• We announced plans to study wave power off the coast of Mendocino and Humboldt Counties and we are exploring tidal power in San Francisco Bay.
• We have made other recent announcements on plans for new wind-energy resources, solar energy, and other renewable resources for our customers.
• We issued our draft 2008 renewable energy procurement solicitation where we will be seeking to procure an additional one to two percent of our customers' electricity needs through renewable resources.

PG&E can 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 has entered into a landmark renewable energy agreement with Solel-MSP-1 to purchase renewable energy from the Mojave Solar Park. Construction will take place in California's Mojave Desert. The project will deliver 553 megawatts of solar power to our customers in northern and central California. The Mojave Solar Park project is among the world's largest solar commitments. At the Clinton Global Initiative, PG&E committed to add another 1,000 MW of new solar thermal generation over the next five years.

Benefitting our customers further, in 2007, PG&E began administering 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. In 2007, PG&E paid over 1,600 projects totaling over $18 million in incentives. Learn more about what we do with solar energy.

Investing in Cleaner Conventional Sources

We reached a key milestone by executing agreements to purchase 2,096 megawatts of new, highly efficient natural gas-fueled generation for operation in 2009 and 2010, including planned ownership of a 660-megawatt plant in Colusa.

PG&E will build, own and operate a new 530-megawatt natural gas-fueled Gateway Generating Station — the first new power plant we have constructed in nearly 20 years. The facility offers a number of environmental advantages, including a "dry cooling" technology to avoid use of river water for cooling purposes. Also, the combined cycle technology will decrease fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to conventional fossil-fuel power plants. Compared to older plants, the new plant will yield 35 percent less CO₂ for every megawatt hour of power produced.

News Releases

2008

• PG&E Solicits New Renewable Energy for Its Customers, March 7, 2008
• PG&E and Bioenergy Solutions Turn the Valve on California’s First “Cow Power” Project, March 4, 2008
• PG&E Seeks Approval For New Geothermal Energy Contract, February 15, 2008
• Pacific Gas and Electric Company Seeks to Research Biomethane Resources for its Customers, January 24, 2008
• More news