SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) today announced it has signed on the first community solar project for its Regional Renewable Choice program with the renewable energy developer ForeFront Power. The program allows all customers, including renters and those who can’t install solar, the option of purchasing up to 100 percent solar energy without having to install private rooftop solar panels.

Approximately half of U.S. households and businesses are unable to install rooftop solar due to space, lack of sun exposure or ownership limitations.¹ The Regional Renewable Choice program gives residential and business customers – including those who rent – an easy way to participate in solar without installing or maintaining solar panels.

“The Regional Renewable Choice program is part of our ongoing commitment to support the growth of solar and other renewable energy sources in California. This program enables our customers to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from their electricity usage and allows them to directly be a part of California’s clean energy future,” said Vincent Davis, PG&E’s senior director of Customer Energy Solutions.

Based in Fresno County, the 1.66 megawatt solar project will be built by the renewable energy developer ForeFront Power. Participating customers will sign a contract directly with ForeFront Power to subscribe to a portion of the energy produced by the solar project. Customers will receive a program credit from PG&E on their monthly energy statement based on the kilowatt-hour output of their subscription with the developer.

Both residential and business customers in Fresno County expressed interest in the project. This new community solar project is expected to be completed and delivering energy to customers in mid-2019.

Expanding Clean Energy Options in California

PG&E’s Regional Renewable Choice program expands clean energy access by enabling customers to work directly with developers of new renewable projects. Through the program, customers may contract with developers and subscribe to a portion of the power produced from a newly developed renewable project based in PG&E’s service area. Customers can subscribe to between 25 and 100 percent of their energy use.

Through the program, PG&E will work with local renewable energy developers across Northern and Central California that will build small- and mid-sized renewable projects ranging from 0.5 to 20 megawatts. The energy for these new projects must be from renewable resources including but not limited to solar, wind or biomass.

The Regional Renewable Choice program is Green-e® Energy Certified. Green-e Energy is the nation's leading independent consumer protection program for renewable energy, and sets environmental and consumer-protection standards established by the nonprofit Center for Resource Solutions.

Through 2018, PG&E will hold requests for offers for renewable energy developers to submit proposals for projects in the Regional Renewable Choice program. Renewable energy developers can visit this website for more details.

For more information, customers can visit pge.com/rrc.

About PG&E

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric energy companies in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to nearly 16 million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com/ and www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/index.page.

¹ National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Shared Solar: Current Landscape, Market Potential, and the Impact of Federal Securities Regulation, April 2015, http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy15osti/63892.pdf.

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Source: Pacific Gas and Electric Company