Hercules First To Go Solar with PG&E’s Solar Choice Program

From Pacific Gas and Electric Company: Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced on Wednesday, December 7 that the city of Hercules is the first city to adopt PG&E’s Solar Choice program for key facilities including traffic controllers, lights and signals as well as the city’s sewer system. PG&E’s Solar Choice allows customers to go solar without installing panels. To power these city services, Hercules will purchase 100 percent of their electric power from solar energy locally sourced in Northern and Central California, reducing their carbon footprint and driving the development of new solar resources within the state.

“PG&E’s Solar Choice program fits into our plan as a thriving, innovative city in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area. By enrolling in the program, we can ensure that our hard work is being powered by solar energy and supporting not only our local climate goals, but those of California,” said Mayor Dan Romero of Hercules.

Hercules’ services on PG&E’s Solar Choice will use approximately 250,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year, which is the equivalent of powering 36 homes in California for one year.

“Today, we celebrate Hercules as the first city to partner with us on PG&E’s Solar Choice. This program is all about giving customers more choice and control over their energy, and bringing the benefits of solar to our communities. Our customers already enjoy some of the cleanest power in the country and, now they can directly contribute to bringing more renewable energy onto the energy grid,” said Vitaly Tyurin, senior manager of PG&E’s East Bay Division.

PG&E’s Solar Choice helps renters, homeowners, businesses and cities meet their sustainability, clean energy and climate goals. For a modest charge, PG&E’s Solar Choice program extends solar access and benefits to customers regardless of their location or ability to physically install rooftop solar. As the program develops, the solar energy purchased by customers will be sourced from new solar projects built by developers across PG&E’s service area, bringing new green jobs to Northern and Central California.

PG&E also will work with Hercules to perform energy efficiency audits in their city-owned buildings to determine how they can save energy and money. The audits will be performed by East Bay Energy Watch, a partnership between PG&E and the local governments of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, offering energy efficiency programs and services to the community.

PG&E’s Solar 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.

Customers can visit here to learn more about the new program. View the online tool for more details on the monthly charge and environmental impact associated with signing up for PG&E’s Solar Choice.

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 here and here.

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