USA - PG & E enters agreement for renewable wind energy

San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced that it has entered into a long-term agreement with Hatchet Ridge Wind, LLC, a subsidiary of Babcock & Brown, to purchase up to 103 megawatts (MW) of renewable wind energy.

It is the third such contract signed in 2008, company officials stated in a release made public over the weekend.

The Hatchet Ridge wind project, located near Burney, will generate up to 303 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy annually, enough to serve nearly 44,000 residential homes. Energy deliveries are expected to begin flowing from that source by the end of 2009.

"This wind energy project will provide our northern and central California customers with clean, emission-free power," said Fong Wan, senior vice president of energy procurement for PG&E. "Our agreement with Hatchet Ridge Wind is another important step to increasing our diverse renewable energy portfolio."

"We look forward to working together with PG&E to create a new, homegrown and sustainable source of carbon-free energy in Northern California," said Hunter Armistead, head of Babcock & Brown's North American Renewable Energy Group.

Since 2002, PG&E has entered into contracts for more than 24 percent of its future deliveries from renewable sources. On average, more than 50 percent of the energy that PG&E delivers to its customers comes from generating sources that emit no carbon dioxide, making the company's energy among the cleanest in the nation.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation's cleanest energy to 15 million people in northern and central California

For more information, please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net