PG&E Harnessing the Sun to Help Power California

By Mike Gazda

The sun plays a critical role in helping to power the lives of Californians, and the importance of solar - along with other renewables like biopower, geothermal, hydroelectric and wind - will continue to grow as the Golden State moves closer to achieving its goal of carbon neutrality by 2045.

PG&E delivers some of the nation's cleanest power, including solar energy. We're making significant investments in solar and will rely on the power of the sun even more as we continue the transition away from natural gas-fired generation to meet growing energy demand in the years ahead.

Last year (2023), solar accounted for approximately 24% of the power PG&E provided to customers. Today, we are tapping into the sun's power via utility-scale solar and customer rooftop solar. We capture so much energy when the sun is shining it often exceeds the power needs of our customers. A growing amount of solar energy surplus is stored in batteries and used in the evenings and at night, after the sun has set.

Solar Economics 101

PG&E is a strong advocate for solar energy and supports the deployment of solar technology that uses the sun in ways that are cost-effective for all of our customers.

Increased utility-scale solar, rooftop solar and battery energy storage all play important roles in meeting California's goal to provide 100% clean energy by 2045.

Right now - considering current solar regulations set by the state of California that shift costs from customers with rooftop solar to non-solar customers, and the overall cost to scale projects to meet demand - the most cost-effective way to meet California's goal is to prioritize large-scale solar and storage.

Large-Scale Solar and Storage

Large-scale solar energy accounts for the biggest share of PG&E's renewable energy mix. As of 2023, the company owns 13 solar power plants totaling 153 megawatts of clean power and 260 Renewables Portfolio Standard-eligible power purchase agreements totaling more than 6,000 megawatts. According to the California Independent System Operator (ISO), one megawatt produces enough electricity to instantaneously power about 750 homes.

To integrate solar and other renewables onto the grid, PG&E has brought online more than 2,200 megawatts of new incremental battery storage capacity, with an additional 834 megawatts planned in 2024. PG&E has more than 3.5 gigawatts of total battery energy storage under contract.

Rooftop Solar

Rooftop solar represents a key portion of PG&E's overall solar portfolio, and customers with rooftop solar panels can lower their energy bills, especially when their solar units are paired with storage. However, because of incentives implemented by the state to encourage the growth of rooftop solar that are paid for through non-solar customer bills, residential customers without solar today pay 15% more per month to subsidize the electric bills of those with rooftop solar panels.

PG&E believes that incentives should be fair and equitable for all customers, which is why we supported the California Public Utilities Commission's (CPUC) implementation of a new Net Billing Tariff in 2023, also known as the Solar Billing Plan (SBP). SBP still encourages the growth of rooftop solar and incentivizes customers to add battery storage to solar systems to help make the state's electric grid more sustainable and reliable. Incentives that were originally implemented decades ago to accelerate rooftop solar have been adjusted to better reflect a more mature rooftop solar market and reduce the cost shift to non-solar customers.

PG&E has interconnected over 800,000 solar customers - more than any other U.S. utility - to support customers who have made the choice to go solar, strengthen California's energy grid and reduce our state's carbon footprint. Including a record-setting year with more than 167,500 solar interconnection applications in 2023, PG&E has processed applications to connect the solar panels of nearly a half-million residential customers to the grid since 2020, roughly the same volume as the previous decade (2010-2019).

In addition, PG&E connects hundreds to thousands of new, behind-the-meter (BTM) battery energy storage systems to its grid every month. Through January 2024, BTM battery storage systems among PG&E customers totaled more than 670 megawatts - 35% of the nation's behind-the-meter storage capacity.

Community Renewable Programs

While PG&E's renewables procurement ensures all customers are receiving clean energy, programs like the Green Tariffand Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariffprovide options for households and businesses that are looking to more directly participate in the clean-energy transformation without installing rooftop solar.

In May 2024, the CPUC expanded these proven programs and adopted a new community renewable energy program that, once implemented, will enable customers to subscribe to participating solar projects and receive bill credits.

To learn more about going solar or adding battery storage to rooftop solar units, visit the Solar page on our website (pge.com).

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