California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has issued a request for offers (RFO) for solar projects sized between 500 kW and 20 MW, seeking a total of 176.15 MW of capacity.
The RFO is issued as part of the utility’s Green Tariff Shared Renewables (GTSR) program, which aims to procure front-of-the-meter solar projects. The GTSR program includes two sister programs, Solar Choice and Regional Renewable Choice.
Solar Choice projects have a deadline of December 31, 2024 to reach commercial operations, and Regional Renewable Choice projects must be activated within 36 months of contract execution. The projects will be built in various locations across the utility’s service area and will contribute to the growth of each program.
The Solar Choice program offers customers a pathway to adopt solar without installing rooftop arrays. Through the program, customers can purchase either 50% or 100% of their electricity from projects located in Central and Northern California. An online map displays the locations and specifications of each project that contributed to the program, and it will be updated as the new projects begin development and are activated.
The Regional Renewable Choice program offers customers the opportunity to subscribe to renewable generation from a community-based project within PG&E service area. It was launched by Senate Bill 43, enacted in 2015, which mandated expanded access to renewable resources. The transaction structure is comprised of a customer-developer agreement, a customer energy statement credit, and a power purchase agreement. Program-specific requirements for developers can be found here.
Offers for the two RFOs are due by June 16, 2023. PG&E said it anticipates executing agreements and seeking approval from the California Public Utilities Commission this summer. More information on PG&E wholesale electric power procurement efforts can be found here.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Now that PG&E has gotten NEM 3.0 from the CPUC, they can take the 75% of the electricity, taken from the new home solar mandate and future solar adopters, that chose to grid connect to the grid, sell it for a profit, the pay to own its own solar to sell back to those customers for 300% more than before. The California utilities believe they own the rights to sell their electricity exclusively to Californians at 100% higher rates than what the rest of the country pays and stop letting homeowners’ profit from owning their own energy producing rooftop solar. The business practices of monopolies are to put the competition out of business. “Off grid solar is the only cure to the monopoly utilities now in California.
The only efficient placements of new utility scale solar would be co-located with new or existing irrigation canals, hydro, wind or Advanced Geothermal power plants. Otherwise, customers will be paying for unnecessary PG&E transmission improvements for decades. That’s the PG&E monopolistic business model. Before we OK more PG&E utility scale solar on remote farmland or environmentally sensitive wild land habitat, let’s modestly incentivize solar parking lot canopies with on-site stationary battery storage & V2G chargers on existing large parking lots…..everywhere.
Reduce utility & transportation costs for owners, employees & tenants of leased commercial property, like large apartment & condominium developments, neighborhood shopping centers, business parks, hospitals, schools & other public facilities & adjacent lower density neighborhoods. Produce & store reliable power behind the meter, right where most energy is being consumed. Shade enormous asphalt heat islands. Build a matrix of reliable networked neighborhood micro grids. Accomplish all this without remote solar-farm land acquisition or long distance utility transmission spending. Widely distributed, cheap, reliable neighborhood power production & storage instead of exclusively remote, unreliable utility monopoly power.
It’s not clear where the associated energy storage is to be implemented to avoid aggravating the duck curve. Is the IOU leaving that component for CAISO to define and direct?
With higher pole mounts especially, grazing can coexist very well with solar panels. A little shade can prolong soil moisture and give a few more weeks of forage growth and provide shade for animals. Weeds and grass are kept down.
The key is designing with no low exposed wires. Wires would need to be in conduit if ran low on the outside of mounts. This is a win win and should overcome objections to land being removed from agricultural. Sheep can safely graze under panels even with exposed wiring with a minimal raise in bottom height. Search solar grazing association for more information.