Jul 9 2009
U.S. energy supplier Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), headquartered in San Francisco, California, has commissioned the SOLON Corporation in Tucson, Arizona, to build a photovoltaic power plant with a capacity of 2 megawatts (MW) in California. The pilot power plant project is part of a five-year program in which PG&E expects to develop 250 MW of solar photovoltaic power in California. SOLON Corporation is a fully owned subsidiary of SOLON SE in Berlin.
Serving 15 million people in Northern and Central California, PG&E is one of the largest gas and electricity utilities in the U.S. PG&E awarded the SOLON Corporation a contract to produce photovoltaic modules and build a 2 MW power plant, which is planned to be completed in December 2009, in a multi-stage bidding process involving several top North American solar companies. The project installation will be performed by Silverwood Energy Inc, a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business (SDVOB) based in San Diego, California. Silverwood Energy has installed over 22 MW of solar power in California to date.
The power plant is a pilot project for PG&E aimed at enabling the utility to develop more photovoltaic power plants in the future. As part of its solar energy initiative, PG&E plans to use photovoltaic power to deliver more than 1,000 gigawatt hours of electricity each year by 2015. This would be enough to supply up to 150,000 households. The program is one of the largest photovoltaic projects in the U.S. It targets mid-sized power plants of 1 to 20 MW, mounted on the ground or on rooftops. Award of the contract will give SOLON Corporation the opportunity to work closely with PG&E to gain a better understanding of their solar program goals.
SOLON Corporation was founded in 2007 as part of SOLON's initiative to develop the U.S. market. The subsidiary has built its own production facilities where it manufactures UL-certified solar modules for the U.S. market.