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PG&E cleared to buy 335MW of solar and biomass power

The Agua Caliente facility is expected to generate enough power to supply around 100,000 homes with clean electricity

Californian utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has been given the go-ahead to buy renewable energy from a large solar plant and a biomass project.

It will buy power from the 290-megawatt Agua Caliente Solar photovoltaic facility being developed in Yuma County, southwest Arizona.

And, the utility will buy power from a facility in Stockton, California, which is being converted from coal power to biomass feedstocks.

The green light was given by the California Public Utilities Commission last week.

PG&E is chasing California’s target to supply a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Agua Caliente

The Agua Caliente solar plant is being developed by NextLight Renewable Power LLC, a San Francisco company owned by private equity firm Energy Capital Partners.

PG&E will buy power through a 25-year power purchase agreement.

The Commission said the PPA would see the utility receiving an average of 688 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy each year starting in 2014, although with the solar plant being developed in phases, PG&E could start to receive power before that date.

This would be enough power to supply around 100,000 homes with clean electricity, around 0.8% of the utility’s annual retail electricity sales.

Construction of the facility on 2,400 acres of land could begin as early as this summer. Although located out of state, the solar facility will be interconnected with the California Independent System Operator transmission system.

Stockton

Meanwhile, the utility has also been cleared to buy power from DTE Energy Services, a company that is proposing to convert an existing coal power station to use biomass that would be eligible under California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard scheme.

The facility in Stockton is expected to generate 45MW of power from the summer of 2013.

The 25-year power purchase agreement is expected to involve an average of 315 gigawatt-hours of power each year.

The Stockton facility is actually owned by NextEra Energy Resources, and with the PPA approval in place is now expected to be bought by DTE before being retrofitted to switch from coal to biomass feedstocks.

Along with California’s renewable energy target, the Stockton project will help PG&E reach the state’s target to source 20% of its renewable electricity from biomass resources within the state, the Commission said last week.

DTE Energy Services has been operating biomass plants since 2004, and currently owns and operates two biomass plants – the Woodland Biomass Power project in Woodland, California, and Mobile Energy Services in Mobile, Alabama.

The company is also currently in the process of turning a coal power plant in Cassville, Wisconsin into a biomass power plant set to become operational later this year.