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Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will make a rare political public appearance today, with his schedule opening up to join Gov. Jerry Brown in San Diego at the groundbreaking and dedication of the Sunrise Powerlink — a large transmission line project that will run from the Imperial Valley to San Diego. Schwarzenegger promoted and supported that project more than four years ago.

President John F. Kennedy’s nephew, Robert Kennedy, Jr., netted a $1.4 billion bailout for his company, BrightSource, through a loan guarantee issued by a former employee-turned Department of Energy official. It’s just one more in a string of eye-opening revelations by investigative journalist and Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer in his explosive new book, Throw Them All Out. The details of how BrightSource managed to land its ten-figure taxpayer bailout have yet to emerge fully. However, one clue might be found in the person of Sanjay Wagle. Wagle was one of the principals in Kennedy’s firm who raised money for Barack...

San Jose-based SunPower, Silicon Valley's dominant solar panel manufacturer, on Monday announced three power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison to deliver 711 megawatts of solar power. The deal, one of the largest for photovoltaic solar power in the United States, would produce enough power for about 460,000 California homes. "This is an unprecedented time for solar photovoltaic," Marc Ulrich, the utility's vice president of renewable and alternative power, said in a statement. "We're seeing growth in technological advances and manufacturing efficiencies that result in competitive prices for green, emission-free energy for our customers." ... California's three largest utilities have...

Southern California Edison said it has wrapped up the world's largest-ever agreement to buy electricity generated by solar power, a series of generators in California's eastern deserts that could eventually supply more than 800,000 homes. The utility, which serves Riverside County and the sprawling southern California territory outside of the city of Los Angeles and San Diego County, hopes the first of seven plants will begin operating in 2013, the company said in a press release Wednesday morning. The Rosemead-based utility counts nearly 5 million customers in Riverside and a half-dozen other California counties. BrightSource Energy Inc. of Oakland would...

The utility's ratepayer-financed plan to outfit 150 buildings with the panels is cheered by business owners but criticized by consumer activists. Southern California Edison on Monday unveiled its newest power plant: 33,700 solar panels atop a warehouse in Fontana that will feed green energy directly into the grid. It's the first piece of what the utility says could become the largest rooftop solar installation in the world, a swath of photovoltaic panels spanning two square miles. The 600,000-square-foot warehouse rooftop, owned by logistics firm ProLogis Inc., is the first of 150 commercial buildings that Edison is looking to outfit with...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled an ambitious long-range plan Monday for securing enough solar power to meet one-tenth of the city's energy needs by 2020, a move aimed at making L.A. a hub of the solar-energy industry. Appearing at a South Los Angeles manufacturing plant where solar panels are made, Villaraigosa said the initiative will help the Department of Water and Power wean itself off of fossil fuels -- natural gas and coal -- as part of the effort to address global warming. The plan calls for enough solar panels to produce 1,280 megawatts of power, a goal that...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A company backed by investors linked to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pressing regulators to speed up a review of its proposed $2 billion solar-energy complex, warning that delays would send a "chilling signal" to the emerging green power industry. But the California Energy Commission staff opposes the move, depicting it as an end run that could break apart a precedent-setting review of the planned solar site near the Mojave Desert Preserve. At the center of the dispute is a project widely viewed as a potential breakthrough in large-scale U.S. solar development. --snip-- The company says the...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- SunPower Corp. shares rallied 18% Friday after the solar-panel maker announced its participation in a giant 800-megawatt, photovoltaic project from Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., hailed by industry insiders as the first major utility-scale endeavor of its kind in the United States. Analysts cheered the project's news as a positive move for the solar stocks, hit by concerns tied to a slowing economy and oversupply, as well as uncertainty over federal tax subsidies for alternative energy. A common sight on rooftops or emergency phones on the highway, photovoltaic panels are finally taking a stab at producing...

Despite increasing popular support for solar photovoltaic panels in the United States, their costs far outweigh the benefits, according to a new analysis by Severin Borenstein, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business and director of the UC Energy Institute. "Solar photovoltaic (PV) is a very exciting technology, but the current technology is not economic," said Borenstein. "We are throwing money away by installing the current solar PV technology, which is a loser." In his January working paper, "The Market Value and Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Electricity Product," Borenstein also found that, even after considering...

LOS ANGELES - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Sen. John McCain in the Republican presidential race on Thursday, praising him as an "extraordinary leader" who can reach across the political aisle to get things done. At a news conference, Schwarzenegger said McCain has the national security credentials to do the job, and is a "crusader against wasteful spending." Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani also attended the event, one day after he dropped out of the race and threw his support behind his longtime friend. McCain is counting on both men — Schwarzenegger in California and Giuliani in New York...

Talk about a clash of cherished green values. In a case with statewide significance, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office is pursuing a Sunnyvale couple under a little-known California law because redwood trees in their backyard cast a shadow over their neighbor's solar panels. Richard Treanor and Carolynn Bissett own a Prius and consider themselves environmentalists. But they refuse to cut down any of the trees behind their house on Benton Street, saying they've done nothing wrong. "We're just living here in peace. We want to be left alone," said Bissett, who with her husband has spent $25,000 defending...

SACRAMENTO — California homeowners are rejecting new rebates for solar power equipment, saying the state has made installing the rooftop panels far more costly than expected. As a result, Public Utilities Commission reports show a decline of 78% in rebate requests in the first three months of this year, compared with last year, and the solar installation industry says it is threatened with collapse across much of California.

If California's $3.4 billion solar initiative succeeds in promoting 1 million more rooftop, solar-electric systems, it could still be considered a failure. That's because the 10-year program, set to begin next month, aims to do more than just subsidize installations. It's also intended to make solar electricity's cost comparable to the power provided by utilities. Today it costs twice as much. If solar costs could be made competitive, the impact would be profound. Most conventional power is produced by burning coal or natural gas, making the electric-generation industry a leading source of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Cheap and...

State to embark on its biggest-ever photovoltaic project When the sun rises on New Year's Day, it will signal the start of California's most ambitious effort yet to generate electricity from sunlight. HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune California hopes to subsidize the installation of enough photovoltaic systems, like this one atop a Qualcomm building in Sorrento Mesa, to generate 3,000 megawatts of solar electricity. That could power nearly 3 million homes on a sunny day. The California Solar Initiative commits the state to spending more than $3.4 billion over the next 10 years to subsidize the installation of 1 million solar...

California's landmark efforts to increase solar power, supported by environmentalists, state leaders and the governor, could be in peril. In the next few months, PG&E, the largest utility company in the state, will reach the cap on how much solar energy it will buy back from customers. If the Legislature fails to pass a new bill raising that cap, new solar users in PG&E's territory won't be eligible for the benefits currents users enjoy, which some fear could bring the rise of solar energy in California to a grinding halt. "It will destroy the industry," said Ken Adelman, a retired...

When Erica Grubb installed solar panels on the roof of her Berkeley house, the decision was both personal and political. Personal because Grubb used a small inheritance from her mother to purchase the solar panels, which cost $18,000 -- $13,000 after rebates. Political because seeing "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's movie on global warming, inspired Grubb, a lawyer, and her husband, an economist, to go solar and install equipment that can generate up to 2.8 kilowatts of electricity. The Grubbs join thousands in California who are lining up to purchase equipment that converts sunlight into power or hot water for...

SAN JOSE As demand for clean energy rises around the world, the nation's high tech hub is finding new ways to squeeze money from silicon. Silicon Valley, named for the material used to make computer chips, is applying its expertise to design and manufacture silicon solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity. Advocates hope the region's engineers and entrepreneurs will help make solar competitive with traditional energy sources such as coal and natural gas. "We're in the very early stages of a long build-out in solar technology," predicted Erik Straser, who heads the "cleantech" practice at the Menlo Park venture...

CALIFORNIA may be a leader in curbing greenhouse gases and creating solar power, but Texas hasbreezed past the Golden State as the nation's top producer of wind power. The Lone Star State, better known for its oil derricks and natural gas, now has a capacity of 2,370 wind-generated megawatts, enough to power 600,000 average-sized homes a year, according to a report released by the American Wind Energy Association. California, the nation's wind energy leader since 1981, has 2,323 wind-generated megawatts, a mere 47 megawatts less than Texas. California industry observers shrugged off the development, describing it as a relatively small...

California citizens will pay at least $3.2 billion over the next 11 years to finance a costly solar energy initiative rejected by the state's legislature in fall 2005 but implemented by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on December 13. Observers quickly derided CPUC's decision, the California Solar Initiative, as demonstrating deliberate disregard for the state's democratic processes. Initiative Mirrors Failed Bill CPUC's California Solar Initiative is virtually identical to S.B. 1, the Million Solar Roofs proposal that was supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) but died in the state assembly in September 2005. S.B. 1 aimed to place solar...

For Immediate Release: 1/12/2006 For More Information: Contact Bernadette Del Chiaro (916) 446-8062 x 103 "It's Official!" CPUC Approves $3.2 Billion Solar Program Landmark Vote Creates Nation’s Largest Solar Roofs Program and Puts California on Pace to Become a World Solar Power Leader SAN FRANCISCO—Today, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved the California Solar Initiative (CSI), committing a combined $3.2 billion in incentive funds to drive consumers toward solar power over the next 11 years. The CSI, modeled largely on the Million Solar Roofs bill that ran aground in the state Legislature last year, is designed to provide rebates...