David Rohy

With the state Public Utilities Commission’s December approval of its Sunrise Powerlink project, San Diego Gas & Electric is moving forward with plans for a $1.9 billion, 123-mile high-voltage transmission line that would connect solar, wind and geothermal power-generation in East County and the Imperial Valley to regional customers.

According to SDG&E, the 1,000-megawatt line — enough to power 650,000 homes — is required to meet California’s 20 percent renewable energy mandate by 2010 and 33 percent mandate by 2020.

Today, SDG&E generates 6 percent of its energy from renewable energy sources.

While the utility has 13-plus percent of the requirement under contract for 2010 and 20-plus percent for 2011, most contracts are dependent on the transmission line being built, says spokeswoman Jennifer Briscoe.

Once the utility receives a decision from the Bureau of Land Management, expected sometime in the latter part of this month, it hopes to break ground in mid-2010, says Briscoe. It is expected to be completed in 2012.

Renewable Resources

Phoenix-based Stirling Energy Systems has a 20-year agreement with SDG&E for a solar farm project in Imperial Valley. The first phase includes 12,000 SunCatcher dishes, generating 300 megawatts; the second phase will generate 450 megawatts from 18,000 solar dishes. The goal is to generate 900 megawatts total at the farm.

SES sought certification from the state Energy Commission in June, which was granted in October.

“A pretty big milestone,” says SES Chief Executive Steve Cowman.

He said he hopes to have all approvals by year end and begin construction in 2010. Once under way, the first phase will be finished in two years.

While the line is critical to the overall project, the first phase can be built independent of the project.

SDG&E has also contracted with MMR Power Solutions to purchase power from its 100-megawatt solar-cell project in the Imperial Valley.

This two-phase project was approved in March 2007 by the PUC, says Briscoe, along with a 20-megawatt geothermal project with Esmeralda San Felipe Geothermal. Another 40-megawatt project with Esmeralda was approved in 2008. Sempra Generation has a 20-year agreement with Southern California Edison for a 250-megawatt wind-power project that is dependent on the completion of Sunrise to begin.