PG&E Looks to Solar Panels in Space for Power
by Celia Lamb, Sacramento Business Journal
Monday, April 13, 2009
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. plans to buy solar energy from panels orbiting the earth.
The company has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement with Solaren Corp. for 200 megawatts of solar power produced by panels in space. The power would be converted into radio frequency energy, transmitted to a receiving station to Fresno County, converted back into electrical power and fed into the power grid.
Jonathan Marshall, PG&E’s chief of external communications, announced the deal on the utility’s NEXT100 blog. Solaren is a startup based in Manhattan Beach in Southern California.
Producing solar power in space is appealing because it would not be shaded by atmospheric layers and clouds, Marshall said in the blog. If approved by the state Public Utilities Commission, the contract would start in 2016.
Marshall said in a telephone call that customers would bear no risk because the utility would only pay for power as it is generated. The utility is not making an equity investment, and it would not have to pay a penalty to cancel the contract if the technology doesn’t pan out, he added.
“There’s always a spectrum of proposals in terms of risk and reward,” Marshall said. “This project is a first-of-a-kind technology.”
