Sempra Energy Subsidiary Announces Solar Power Purchase Agreements

San Diego Gas & Electric today announced that it has entered into two, 25-year solar power purchase agreements for a total of 80 megawatts and revised its agreement with renewable energy developer NaturEner to buy power from the company's Rim Rock wind farm project in Montana. The first of the solar agreements is a 25-year contract with subsidiaries of Sol Orchard, LLC to purchase as much as 50 MW of locally produced solar energy. The agreement calls for 21 individual, ground-mounted photovoltaic plants that would be built mainly in rural communities in San Diego County over the next two years. Most will be 2-MW projects, but some will be as large as 4 MW. The second new solar power purchase agreement is with subsidiaries of Soitec Solar Development, LLC, a renewable energy company managed by Soitec. The agreement includes three contracts with the combined capacity of 30 MW of solar energy to be generated at three solar power plant sites in San Diego County. The plants will use Soitec Concentrix technology and the concentrator photovoltaictechnology modules will be manufactured at a new Soitec factory to be built in the San Diego area. The projects will deploy a ground-mounted, dual-axis tracking CPV solar power system, which uses lenses to concentrate sunlight onto very small, extremely efficient solar cells that convert the light into electrical energy. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy SRE.