Pacific Gas and Electric Company today unveiled the nation’s first solar-powered billboard, located in San Francisco, Calif. The billboard is part of the utility’s new advertising campaign, titled “We Can Do This”, which features information about a variety of programs and services PG&E offers that reflect the company’s commitment to the environment.
“With this solar-powered billboard - the nation’s first - we increase the amount of clean, renewable energy we provide our customers,” said Greg Pruett, senior vice president of corporate relations at PG&E Corporation. “We also hope to capture the imagination of Americans about the actionable steps one can take to reduce their environmental impact.”
The solar-powered billboard is located at 1000 Brannan Street in San Francisco, visible from the Highway 101 9th Street exit for those of you Ecotality Life readers who roll that way each day. The billboard is outfitted with 20 solar modules that can provide up to 3.4 kilowatts of renewable solar energy to the PG&E grid. The solar panels actually generate excess power above what is needed to illuminate the sign at night, thianks to the use of LED lights.
The solar panels were provided by SunTech Power.
No doubt the billboard cost more to build than a traditional billboard, though its ongoing energy usage will cost less. It makes financial sense for PG&E to do this because it’s a marketing and public relations expense designed to show the company “walking” the same renewable-energy message it is talking.
As the cost of solar panels decreases, and their efficiency at turning the sun’s rays into electricty increases, major billboard owners across the country should consider adding solar-power to their signs, and using LED lights too - as the combo may eventually turn billboard lighting from a cost to a revenue source.
By the way, the claimed first-anywhere solar billboard stands in South Africa, and is the one pictured above. Energy from the billboard is helping power the kitchen of a school in a nearby town.
PG&E currently supplies 12 percent of its energy from qualifying renewable sources under California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program and the company is well on its way to reaching its renewable energy portfolio of 20 percent delivered or under contract by 2010.
