The California Public Utilities Commission has approved renewable energy contracts for Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric Company (SDG&E), furthering the state's progress towards its renewable energy goals.

Edison's 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) is with CA Solar 10, LLC, which is owned by Solar Millennium, LLC. The project will consist of two 242-megawatt (a total of 484 megawatts) facilities that will utilize solar thermal trough technology to generate an estimated 1,100 gigawatt-hours of energy annually.

CA Solar 10 has been identified as a "fast-track" project by the Bureau of Land Management. Fast-track designated projects are considered advanced enough in the permitting process that they could obtain approval by December 2010, therefore making them eligible for economic stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The project will be located in Blythe, Calif., and deliveries are anticipated to begin in 2014.

The CPUC also approved a contract between SDG&E and Calpine Energy Services, L.P. for renewable generation from the Geysers geothermal resource area in California's Sonoma and Lake Counties. Under the PPA, SDG&E will receive approximately 212 gigawatt-hours of energy per year though 2014.

The CPUC's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) program requires investor-owned utilities, energy service providers, and community choice aggregators operating in California to obtain 20 percent of their retail sales from renewable energy sources by 2010. On November 17, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger signed an Executive Order (S-14-08), which established a 33 percent by 2020 RPS goal.