(SAN FRANCISCO) - Pacific Gas and Electric Company announced today it has entered into a 15-year agreement with PPM Energy, a developer of utility-scale wind power projects, to purchase renewable wind energy from the company's Klondike III Wind Project in Sherman County, Oregon.
The project will deliver up to 85 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy to PG&E's customers throughout Northern and Central California. "Clean, renewable wind power is central to PG&E's commitment to increase the amount of reliable, environmentally-responsible energy in California," said Fong Wan, vice president of Energy Procurement, PG&E. "Today's agreement further advances PG&E in meeting our renewable energy goals." This is the second major wind project that PG&E has signed with PPM Energy.
In 2006, PG&E began delivering 75 MW of clean, renewable wind energy as part of a 15-year agreement to purchase wind power from the Shiloh Wind Power Project in Solano County, California. The Klondike project is currently under construction and is expected to begin delivering electricity later this year.
"It is gratifying to have outstanding repeat customers from Washington to California select PPM's newest West Coast project for their clean, renewable energy requirements," said Terry Hudgens, CEO of PPM Energy. PG&E has a long history of developing, generating, and purchasing renewable power. PG&E currently supplies 12 percent of its energy from qualifying renewable sources under California's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program. Of this amount, approximately 11 percent of the renewable energy is derived from wind.
With more than 50 percent of the energy PG&E delivers to its customers coming from generating sources that emit no carbon dioxide, PG&E provides among the cleanest energy in the nation. PG&E continues to aggressively add renewable electric power resources to its supply.
In addition to Klondike, PG&E recently announced solar contracts with Cleantech America and GreenVolts, and a 25.5 MW contract with Western GeoPower, Inc. for a new geothermal energy facility in Sonoma County, California. PG&E is seeking regulatory approval of these renewable energy contracts resulting from PG&E's 2006 RPS solicitation.
PG&E is continuing discussions with additional bidders that made offers and were short listed in the 2006 RPS solicitation, and just received bids for additional renewable energy in its 2007 solicitation. California's RPS Program requires each utility to increase its procurement of eligible renewable generating resources by one percent of load per year to achieve a 20 percent renewables goal by 2010.
The RPS Program was passed by the Legislature and is managed by California's Public Commission and Energy Commission.
No comments:
Post a Comment