With the flip of a ceremonial switch, Microsoft Corp dedicated a half-acre of solar panels on its Silicon Valley campus, bringing California closer to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s goal of 1mn solar roofs.
That leaves about 980,000 to go. Schwarzenegger, 58, is pouring $3.2bn into solar energy, and investors are snapping up shares of solar-equipment companies.
Hedge funds including SAC Capital Advisors LLC and GLG Partners LP have solar-power investments in the state. Even so, solar provides just 0.2% of California’s electricity.
“It’s pathetic how few systems we have to date, given that the technology has been around for 30 years,’’ said Bernadette Del Chiaro, 34, clean-energy advocate for the Sacramento-based group Environment California.
The state had fewer than 20,000 solar roofs at the end March, according to the California Energy Commission. The panels on those roofs, even when combined with a solar-generating plant in the desert, took all year to provide 660MW-hours of power. It takes 40 minutes for that much electricity to be generated by Rosemead, California-based Edison International’s new natural-gas-fired plant in Redlands.
