Jun. 28--Two new solar farms will be built to serve San Joaquin County, one producing power for PG&E and another for a south-county irrigation district that provides irrigation and domestic water.

A 2-megawatt solar-power system will be built on eight acres near Tracy by San Francisco-based GreenVolts Inc. That site, when operational during the day, will be able to produce enough electricity to power about 1,500 homes. Also, a 1.6-megawatt solar farm will be constructed on 12 acres this year near Woodward Reservoir by SunTechnics Energy Systems of Sacramento, supplying power by early next year to a water-treatment plant run by the South San Joaquin Irrigation District

The plant, producing domestic water for the cities of Manteca, Tracy and Lathrop, has experienced power outages and high electricity bills since it opened in 2005, said district spokeswoman Troylene Sayler. The power produced by the $12.5 million solar farm will save the district nearly $300,000 in annual power costs, she said, and those savings will be passed on to customers. The district now powers the treatment plant via PG&E. Sayler said the district isn't switching to solar because it has a beef with PG&E but because it just needs consistent power, Sayler said. (In August, the district offered nearly $80 million to PG&E for its electric distribution facilities in Escalon, Manteca, Ripon and nearby unincorporated areas.

PG&E rejected the offer and the district and the utility have been at loggerheads over SSJID s desire to go into the power business.) "It's clean energy, and that's something SSJID puts an emphasis on," she said. The irrigation district will buy cheaper power from the solar-farm operators, who contractually must sell the system to the district between seven and 10 years from now, she said. Because the irrigation district is a governmental entity that can't get solar-incentive tax write-offs, the district gets a better financial deal for now by leasing land to the solar operators and buying the lower-cost power, Sayler said.

The Tracy PG&E project is one of two new solar-power projects resulting from deals between the utility and solar-power developers. Besides GreenVolts, the other developer of utility-scale photovoltaic solar power is Cleantech America LLC, also based in San Francisco. The firm will build a 5 megawatt solar farm on 40 acres near PG&E's Mendota substation in Fresno County. It will be represent one of the largest pure photovoltaic facilities in the country, according to PG&E. The two PG&E agreements will mean delivery of a total of seven megawatts of power. Under the agreements, the projects will be completed in 2009.

Fong Wan, vice president of energy procurement for PG&E, said the projects are part of the utility's push to get 20 percent of its power supplies from renewable-energy sources by 2010. PG&E said it currently supplies 13 percent of its energy from qualifying renewable sources. The utility has interconnected more than 15,000 customer-owned solar-generating systems to the power grid, representing more than 110 megawatts. That's more than any other utility in the nation, PG&E said. Contact reporter Bruce Spence at (209) 943-8581 or bspence@recordnet.com.