DesertBlog

A Better Use for SDG&E’s Sunrise Powerlink Dollars

April 8 Update: Good article by the North County Times’ Dave Downey on SCE’s solar plan, and reactions from Bill Powers and SDG&E. Unsurprisingly, SDG&E dismissed a similar plan for San Diego.

Inspired by the popular Michael J. Fox movie “Forward to the Past,” SDG&E wants to spend billions of your ratepayer dollars on 19th century technology in the form of the Sunrise Powerlink. Meanwhile, the more future-oriented Southern California Edison is earning praise from California Public Utilities Commission President Mike Peavey, who commended the company on its “leadership position in the development of new renewable technology.”

Peavey’s comments came in reaction to SCE’s announcement that it will install 250 megawatts worth of cutting-edge photovoltaic solar panels on 65 million square feet (2 square miles) of commercial rooftops, beginning in the Inland Empire. With an estimated cost of $875 million, the plan calls for the company to install the panels at the rate of one megawatt per week, meaning the project will take about five years to complete. Details on financing and the plan’s effect on the utility rates of participating businesses were not available with the announcement, but you can read more about the plan in this SCE press release.

Our favorite sentence from the press release? “The clusters of solar modules SCE plans to install will be connected directly to the nearest neighborhood circuit, eliminating the need to build new transmission lines to bring the power to customers.” Now that’s a Smart Energy Solution!

We can only hope SDG&E will heed Arnold Schwarzenegger, who encouraged others to follow in SCE’s footsteps. Instead, SDG&E usually denigrates the idea that local PV solar can help to meet San Diego’s energy demands, often wildly exaggerating its cost. For instance, here’s SDG&E president Mike Niggli putting the cost of PV solar at $21 billion for 2000 megawatts. Other company spokespeople have put the cost at $21 billion for 1000 MW. It doesn’t take a genius with a sliderule to see that SCE’s program would cost about $3.5 billion for 1000 megawatts, or $7 billion for the 2000 Niggli says are needed. $7 billion is just about the lifetime cost for the Sunrise Powerlink , which will have massive operational and maintenance costs. In comparison, maintenance and operation costs on photovoltaic panels are minimal.

Opponents of the Sunrise Powerlink have been calling for rooftop solar for years now. If SDG&E won’t listen to us, maybe it will take a cue from its energy industry partner to the north. $3.5 billion instead of $7 billion for 1000 megawatts of renewable energy, no need for a rusty dinosaur marching across desert parks and rural communities, and a massive tide of needed goodwill for a company still repairing its image after the deregulation crisis — what could be better for all concerned?

Come on SDG&E, let’s go forward to the future.