September 18, 2006—Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) recently announced a contract with Luz II to purchase at least 500 megawatts (MW) of solar energy starting in 2010. The contract will provide power for 350,000 PG&E customers, including the San Francisco Bay Area.
The original Luz firm was a pioneer of solar energy development, building nine solar electric generating systems in southern California that generate power by using trough-shaped mirrors to focus the sun’s energy onto a tube through which a fluid is pumped.
Luz II is led by the original management team for Luz, but employs a proprietary new hybrid design that runs off both solar energy and natural gas. Luz II claims that the new technology is more efficient than Luz’s solar troughs and is significantly less expensive to build and operate.
For more information visit PG&E.
