Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), a subsidiary of power supplier PG&E Corporation, announced to power each of its operation service centers completely by solar energy through the utility’s Solar Choice program. The program, which is to be available in early 2016, will also allow its customers choose to purchase 50-100% of their electricity from solar generations from solar projects owned by PG&E in its service area.
December 5th was designed as the “Action Day” amidst the 21th UN global climate summit in Paris (COP21). The Day pushed governments and businesses around the world to unveil their initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, and PG&E, part of the California delegation attending events in Paris, introduced the Solar Choice program and committed to run its nearly 100 service centers located in northern and central California by solar power.
“Solar power is critical to achieving California’s goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and we strongly support its growth—whether it’s for customers who install rooftop solar or for others through our Solar Choice program,” said PG&E’s Geisha Williams, President, Electric.
The Solar Choice program will broaden access to solar power for whom unable to install rooftop solar panels. Customers who enrolling the program have to pay a modest cost premium each month, and PG&E will sign PPAs for solar resources in sizes from 500kW to 2MW.
So far, PG&E has connected over 200,000 rooftop solar customers to the grid. The volume brings the company one of the largest utilities in the U.S. that interconnects solar arrays.