Pacific Gas Electric Co

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for decades has generated power for its customers by splitting atoms, burning natural gas and capturing the force of falling water. More recently, the San Francisco utility began turning to the sun, wind, boiling geysers and even fermented cow manure to produce electricity. Now, PG&E wants to turn to outer space. A Manhattan Beach start-up called Solaren Corp.

PG&E Corp.'s flagship utility reached a settlement with consumer groups on rate increases that will boost its revenue from electricity and natural gas distribution by $288 million. The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. unit and consumer groups agreed to increases that would be less than the $552 million requested by the utility in November.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said Tuesday that it would spend $1.5 billion of ratepayers' money to add 500 megawatts of photovoltaic power in California, one of the largest such deals in the country. Plans call for the San Francisco utility to invest at least half of that in solar panels placed on commercial rooftops and on ground-mounted modules that PG&E would own and operate. The other half is earmarked for long-term contracts with private-sector solar companies.

After three years of work, an array of interest groups are poised to determine the future of more than 140,000 acres of some of California's most ecologically rich and endangered watershed lands, among the largest swaths to be preserved in decades. At stake are lands owned by Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has signed contracts to buy enough solar energy to power 239,000 homes a year. The utility said Thursday that it would buy 800 megawatts of renewable energy from subsidiaries of Hayward-based OptiSolar Inc. and San Jose-based SunPower Corp. The electricity will come from two large-scale solar projects to be built in San Luis Obispo County on the Central California coast. OptiSolar's 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farm project is expected to begin delivering power in 2011.

California's biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., is considering a plan to charge fleets of battery-powered cars overnight with wind energy and let consumers sell back some of the stored electricity during the day.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. plans to file a federal application to study a section of ocean off Humboldt Bay to produce electricity from the power of waves. The preliminary permit application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is the first step in the possible development of the project.

Off the western coast of Scotland, on the Isle of Islay, science teacher Ray Husthwaite turns on the light in his classroom. The electricity comes from a power cable that runs to the mainland. But it also comes from the ocean. A few miles from the school, wave action compresses and decompresses air in a chamber. The moving air powers a turbine, which generates electricity.

State utility regulators Thursday approved more sections of Southern California Edison Co.'s $1.8-billion Tehachapi renewable power transmission project as well as a 4.5% rate increase for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. The Edison project is designed to allow the flow of renewable power -- mainly from wind farms in the Tehachapi area northeast of Los Angeles -- and is key to the utility's push to increase the amount of renewable power delivered to its 4.7 million electricity customers.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the San Francisco Giants said Wednesday that they would team up to place the first solar energy system at a major league ballpark. But storm clouds are gathering over the plan to install nearly 600 solar panels at AT&T Park, the Giants' home field. Consumer advocates contend the project is little more than a publicity stunt and that shareholders, not ratepayers, should be footing the bill.