The request estimates the total project cost will be $875 million (in today's dollars) and will place 250 megawatts of photovoltaic solar panels on 65 million square feet of roofs of Southern California commercial buildings – enough power to serve approximately 162,000 homes. Southern California Edison is the largest electric utility in California, serving an area with a population of more than 13 million people.
"This project will turn unused commercial rooftops into advanced solar generating stations," said John E. Bryson, Edison International chairman and CEO. "We hope to have the first solar rooftops in service by August. The sunlight power will be available to meet our largest challenge – peak load demands on the hottest days."
SCE's renewable energy project was prompted by recent advances in solar technology that reduce the cost of installed photovoltaic generation. When combined with the size of SCE's investment, the resulting costs per unit are projected to be half that of common photovoltaic installations in California.
The utility plans to begin installation work immediately on commercial roofs in Southern California's Inland Empire, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the nation's fastest growing urban region.
"These new solar stations, which we will be installing at a rate of one megawatt a week, will provide a new source of clean energy, directly in the fast-growing regions where we need it most," said Bryson.
SCE sees numerous customer benefits from its new solar program, among them locating the new generation in areas of growing customer demand. And the clusters of solar modules SCE plans to install will be connected directly to the nearest neighborhood circuit, eliminating the need to build new transmission lines to bring the power to customers. Additionally, solar units produce the most power when customer usage is at its highest.
SCE's solar program follows the state's Global Warming Solutions Act requiring the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, as well as California's renewable portfolio standard requiring that 20 percent of the state's electricity be generated with renewable energy by 2010.
In the last year, SCE signed more than a dozen agreements with renewable-energy developers. An agreement with Australia-based Alta Windpower Development LLC, secured 1,500 megawatts or more of electricity, to be generated by facilities to be built in the Tehachapi area of California, doubling SCE's wind energy portfolio. The agreement envisions more than 50 square miles of wind parks.
References:
Southern California Edison Launches Nation's Largest Solar Panel Installation - Edison
Renewable Energy - Edison
Video available at:
www.sce.com/solarevent - Edison
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Comments: 16
And how does this huge corporation add to your "decentralized energy" distribution ideals?
Seems that even though they are installing solar systems Their size alone must imply that they are a part of the corruption in our society that you so vehemently oppose.
My only thought in Calif there was for earthquakes, and ensuring alternate means of temporary supply if a "big one" should come. (used to live there)
I've got no problems with large companies, Dan, as long as they use fair trade practices. At a minimum, they should comply with anti-trust and cartel legislation, anti-racketeering laws, etc. Where companies have a dominant position, government supervision is appropriate, which may in some cases lead to a break up of such companies. Sadly, these principles can be corrupted by large companies that use their size and financial clout to sponsor political campaigns. Politicians need to be more vigilant on this issue and I would support changes to the Constitution to ensure that swift impeachment can take place to remove government officials that abuse these principles.
I think the point of your article is that solar energy can be and is being deployed in large applications. Dan's usual contention is that these applications are not possible in today's energy technology mix.
I agree that the use of large corporate roofs, e.g., distribution centers, is a very good example of how a distributed energy infrastructure might work, at least in part. I also have no objection (at all) to corporations making money by providing local energy to customers and/or providing their own energy, as Google has done.
ProLogis Announces First U.S. Roof Lease to Southern California Edison for 2.2 Megawatt Solar Panel Installation
I've never interprepreted your posts to indicate a strictly physical decentralization, they've always seemed to indicate a decentralization away from large corps. due to their inherent corruptability.
"Dan's usual contention is that these applications are not possible in today's energy technology mix."
Sure that's it Steve.
Well Sam I'm glad that your coming around.
They forecast the total market for electricity generated with solar facilities to reach 288-gigawatt in 2020, with the following marketshare for the respective technologies:
- Concentrated solar thermal - 12 gigawatts
- Concentrated photo-voltaic - 6 gigawatts
- Photo-voltaic fixed flat-plate panels - 170 gigawats
- Tracking photo-voltaic - 100 gigawats
Personally, I'm convinced that growth will be even more spectacular than that, but it's interesting to speculate which technology will get the biggest marketshare.
I remember this report in Treehugger announcing on 14 August 2006 a 20-year power purchase agreement between Stirling Energy and Southern California Edison to construct a 4,500-acre 500-MW solar generating station in Southern California, 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles, capable of producing electricity at a cost of 0.06$/kWh.
Thin-film photo-voltaic material, such as by Nanosolar, promises to produce electricity even cheaper, due to low production cost of this material. According to this article in Popular Science, the Nanosolar's cells use no silicon, and the company's manufacturing process allows it to create cells that are as efficient as most commercial cells for as little as 30 cents a watt.
But as space on top of commercial buildings is scarce, compared to the abundance of space in deserts, tracking photo-voltaic is expected to grew rapidly, since tracking the sun can improve performance by 25% over fixed tilt PV systems. Furthermore, while standard silicon cells only capture up to 20% of the sun's rays, today's triple junction cells can capture as much as 40% or more.