by Jbs082108 c3 — August 27, 2008—California’s Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has signed contracts for two of the most ambitious solar photovoltaic projects in the world: a 550-megawatt (MW) “solar farm” and a 250-MW “solar ranch,” both of which will be located in San Luis Obispo County.
The Bay Area utility announced the agreements with OptiSolar Inc. and SunPower Corporation and expects both of the record-breaking solar power plants to be fully operational by 2013, according to a report from the US Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
OptiSolar’s 550-MW Topaz Solar Farm will begin producing power from its thin-film solar panels in 2011, while SunPower’s 250-MW solar ranch will employ the company’s crystalline solar cells to begin producing power in 2010.
Both of the facilities will reportedly break all current records for solar photovoltaic systems when they are completed, and the agreement led SunPower to declare on its home page that “utility-scale solar power has officially arrived in the United States.”
For more information, see the PG&E Web site.
