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15 August 2008 - Pacific Gas & Electric has inked deals with OptiSolar and SunPower to establish 800 MW of solar farms in California, which could become the world's largest set of grid-tied photovoltaic installations.
The new plants would provide 1.65bn kWh each year, enough to serve nearly 250,000 homes, according to Jack Keenan, CEO and senior vice president of PG&E.
"This commitment not only moves us forward in meeting our renewable goal, it's also a significant step forward in the renewable energy sector," he said. "Utility-scale deployment of PV (photovoltaic) technology may well become cost competitive with other forms of renewable energy generation, such as solar thermal and wind."
OptiSolar's 550 MW are set to come online fully in 2013, and SunPower's 250 MW should be running by 2012, both in central San Luis Obispo County. Unlike these photovoltaic projects, most large-scale solar farms feature solar thermal systems.
The utility would rely on existing transmission lines rather than building them from scratch to deliver electricity to customers from the solar ranches in central California, according to PG&E.
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