California Business Minute™

PG&E to Build World's Largest Solar Facilities

PG&E has signed a deal to build the world's two biggest solar power plants
in central California with solar panels covering 32.5 sq km and producing
800 MW of electricity. Pacific Gas & Electric will use the massive solar
facilities to help it meet state requirements to generate 20 percent of its
electricity from renewable sources by 2010. PG&E signed a contract with
two Silicon Valley firms to build the plants near San Luis Obispo, a city
near the central California coast approximately equidistant from the state's
main population clusters around San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The company, Optisolar will build a 550 MW solar farm using thin-film photovoltaic panels while
SunPower Corp, will build another 250 MW plant on former farm land, both sites in San Luis
Obispo.

The projects will produce 1.65 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually - which is enough
electricity to power 239,000 average California homes each year.

The utility will rely on existing transmission lines rather than building them to deliver electricity
to customers from the solar ranches in central California.

The project is so large that it will double the entire installed base of solar power generation
in the US, SunPower said. Currently, the world's largest solar facility is a 23 MW solar farm
in Spain.

BOEING CONTINUES AUTONOMOUS
TECHNOLOGY EXPANSION
Boeing has announced its continued expansion for testing and evaluating its
unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV  the Hummingbird program at the former
Geroge Air Force Base in Victorville.

Boeing has been testing the aircraft in Victorville since 2002 under a contract
with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It's being developed to
provide reconnaissance and direct attacks for the U.S. military.

The unmanned aircraft measures 35 feet long with a 36-foot rotor diameter, and will
eventually fly up to 30,000 feet.

The Hummingbird set a world record in May for its 18.7-hour endurance flight, landing
with two hours of fuel remaining. The flight is being claimed as the longest on record in
its class, and for "unrefueled rotorcraft endurance."

Other milestones for the A160 include hovering at 16,700 feet for over seven minutes,
reaching speeds of 142 knots and carrying a 1,000-pound payload for eight hours.

Boeing will continue payload testing and experimentation.The phase is expected to
last eight months and includes an additional 60 hours of flight envelope expansion,
250 hours of ground testing and a number of system modifications.

The Sunkist brand was first used in 1907 to promote and
further unify an emerging citrus cooperative formed by
independent growers (previously known as the Southern
California Fruit Exchange and later the California Fruit
Growers Exchange). In 1908, the "Sunkist" name
captured the organization's interest and was adopted
as its trademark to appear on boxes of premium quality
fruit. Their legacy is honored today, over 100 years later,
by the citrus growers in California and Arizona, most of
whom are small family farmers, who now own Sunkist
Growers. Steadfast to its commitment to provide quality
fresh fruit, Sunkist is one of the world's oldest and largest
citrus marketing cooperatives, packing millions of cartons
of fruit each year. Stretching its presence beyond the
produce aisle, Sunkist brand licensed its famous name to
more han 600 products -- ranging from vitamins to
beverages -- in more than 40 different countries on five
continents. For more information about Sunkist,
visit http://www.sunkist.com.

     Technology Based
 Economic Development
Opportunities for Your Community

Is your community participating or
prepared to participate in hosting
new technology based businesses? 
Learn how to prepare for for
nanotechnology, autonomous (robotics)
biotech and clean and green energies