PG&E Wants In On Solar And They’re Willing To Pay

pgesolar

$36 Billion in assets is not necessarily a bad thing to have going for you during a recessionary economy. So what exactly is PG&E going to do with their cash? CEO of the California utility, Peter Darbee announced at this week’s Fortune Green conference that the giant is looking into investing in/buying solar power plants.
This is quite different than usual as we’ve seen utilities invest in wind in the past, but not solar. PG&E does have some hangups to deal with along the way, however.
The Investment Tax Credit (ITC) grants a 30% tax credit to solar investments and has helped startups immensely in reducing costs to build their facilities. Only problem is the ITC doesn’t extend to utilities. Darbee let the audience know that he’s going out of his way to try and get the ITC modified to include utilities. He also noted than if the regulation does not get changed, they’ll simply establish a subsidiary to PG&E that will qualify for the credit…..very monopolistic of you PG&E…..considering it’s for solar, I’ll let it slide.
We’ve already heard the CEO of Ausra talking about utilities stepping in and buying plants. Even though the solar sector is somewhat ironic right now, which companies do you think PG&E will be looking at?