Sempra to sell solar power to California utility

By Jean Reid Norman

Monday, July 27, 2009 | 3:50 p.m.

Sempra Energy has signed a contract to sell the 48 megawatts of power it expects to begin producing by 2011 in Boulder City to Pacific Gas & Electric, a California utility.

PG&E will purchase the entire output of the new 48-megawatt Copper Mountain Solar Plant. Sempra plans to begin construction this year at the site next to its 10-megawatt El Dorado Energy Solar plant in the Eldorado Valley. PG&E also has a contract to purchase the 10 megawatts of power that plant produces.

Construction of the Copper Mountain Solar plant will begin after the California Public Utilities Commission approves the contract, said Michael Allman, president and CEO of Sempra Generation, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy. It is expected to create 200 local construction jobs, he said.

Once open, the plant will probably need three employees to operate, Allman said, and the 1 million black solar panels will cover about two-thirds of a square mile.

The photovoltaic technology the company is using is low-maintenance and uses no water, he said.

“I don’t even think you need to wash them,” Allman said. “The four or five rains you get a year is enough to clean the panels.”

The 48-megawatt plant will produce enough electricity when the sun is shining to power 30,000 average homes, Sempra Energy spokesman Art Larson said.

For PG&E, the purchase helps it meet California requirements that 20 percent of its energy come from renewable resources by 2010, spokeswoman Jennifer Zerwer said. PG&E expects to be at 14 percent by the end of this year and has future energy contracts that will bring renewables to more than 20 percent of its portfolio, she said.

Sempra won the contract through PG&E’s annual contract process, Zerwer said. One of the advantages of solar power, she said, is that when the demand for power is greatest — in the middle of a hot summer day — solar energy is at its peak as well.

“It helps meet peak demand,” she said.

Jean Reid Norman can be reached at 948-2073 or [email protected].