ENERGY
Edison's rooftop solar project powers up
The utility's ratepayer-financed plan to outfit 150 buildings with the panels is cheered by business owners but criticized by
consumer activists.
By Marla Dickerson
December 2, 2008
Southern California Edison on Monday unveiled its newest power plant: 33,700 solar
panels atop a warehouse in Fontana that will feed green energy directly into the grid.
It's the first piece of what the utility says could become the largest rooftop solar
installation in the world, a swath of photovoltaic panels spanning two square miles.
The 600,000-square-foot warehouse rooftop, owned by logistics firm ProLogis Inc., is the
first of 150 commercial buildings that Edison is looking to outfit with solar panels over
the next five years. Collectively, solar panels on all those roofs would provide 250
megawatts of electricity, enough by Edison's reckoning to power more than 160,000
homes when the sun is shining.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was on hand to flip a mock switch on the 2-megawatt
Fontana system, which cost $10 million and can light about 1,300 homes.
"I am a fanatic about renewable energy, and I have been trying to push the power
companies . . . to create more," said Schwarzenegger, who urged Edison to move even
faster on its proposed plan.
If approved by state regulators, Edison's photovoltaic project would be the largest ever
attempted by a U.S. utility; 250 megawatts roughly equals the capacity of all the solar
panels manufactured in the United States last year.
The massive size reflects the pressure California's investor-owned power companies are
under to meet state mandates requiring them to boost the use of clean energy. It also
underscores an evolution in solar financing. Rather than pay for their own panels,
companies such as ProLogis are increasingly leasing out their roofs to utilities or striking
long-term power contracts with third parties, which own, install and maintain the panels.
The approach is a hit with business owners who are finding their roofs to be unexpectedly
valuable real estate. Urban solar is also popular with environmentalists because it can be
linked to existing transmission lines and it transforms barren industrial space into
platforms for clean power.
"This is exactly what all the energy companies should be doing," said Terry Weiner,
conservation coordinator for the San Diego-based Desert Protective Council. She said the
solution to global warming "is right there on the roof."
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But not everyone is enamored of Edison's plan. The Rosemead-based utility, a subsidiary
of Edison International, wants its customers to pick up the nearly $1-billion tab for the
proposed 150-roof project.
Consumer activists object. They say Edison should be looking to cheaper sources of
renewable power, such as large solar and wind farms and geothermal plants. They
contend that Edison International shareholders, not utility ratepayers, should finance the
company's huge bet on photovoltaic rooftop solar, one of the most expensive forms of
clean energy.
Edison used so-called thin-film panels on its first rooftop project. Supplied by Tempe,
Ariz.-based First Solar Inc., that technology is significantly cheaper than traditional
silicon-based solar cells. Still, Edison estimates that electricity from the Fontana facility
costs about 27 cents a kilowatt hour, compared with an average of 8 cents a kilowatt hour
from conventional generation.
"This is not the most cost-effective renewable they could invest in," said Sepideh
Khosrowjah, policy advisor for the Division of Ratepayer Advocates of the California
Public Utilities Commission. The independent advocacy operation has asked the
commission to reject the ratepayer-financed plan. Others fear that Edison would drive up
the cost of solar panels by gobbling a limited supply and that the utility would have an
unfair advantage over private-sector solar providers, which don't have a captive group of
ratepayers to fund their operations.
"This is a solar monopoly that will eliminate its competition," said Michael Boyd,
president of the nonprofit Californians for Renewable Energy Inc., in a filing with utility
regulators.
Edison executives said their entry into the market would help to lower solar panel prices
for everyone because of economies of scale. The company's big orders would help
manufacturers improve designs, increase efficiency and ultimately cut prices, said Ted
Craver, chief executive of Edison International.
Edison is complementing, not competing, he said, with the private-sector firms that are
thriving under California's existing Million Solar Roofs Initiative. That program provides
hefty state incentives to homeowners and businesses that install systems less than 1
megawatt in size.
Craver said Edison's photovoltaic project aimed to install systems ranging from 1
megawatt to 2 megawatts on commercial rooftops.
"It fills a gap," Craver said.
California law requires Edison, PG&E Corp.'s Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Sempra
Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric Co. to procure at least 20% of their electricity from
renewable sources by 2010. Schwarzenegger wants to boost that minimum to 33% by
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2020. Edison is currently at 16%.
Edison already is the nation's largest purchaser of solar power with 354 megawatts under
contract. Much of that comes from large-scale solar projects located in remote desert
areas, which take years to permit and build.
Craver said Edison wanted to add urban rooftop solar to the mix because it can be rolled
out rapidly, getting more clean megawatts online sooner. The Fontana project was
completed in a few months.
Edison on Monday announced its second rooftop project atop a 458,000-square-foot
industrial building in Chino that is slated for completion in early 2009. Craver said it
would probably be Edison's last if the state Public Utilities Commission didn't approve its
proposal.
Dickerson is a Times staff writer.
marla.dickerson@latimes.com
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