First Solar Powered Billboard Unveiled in San Francisco

Pacific Gas and Electric Company announced its launch of the nation's first solar-powered billboard, located in San Francisco, as part of its new advertising campaign entitled, "We Can Do This," which is mainly a collection of information regarding the company's newly introduced environmentally-friendly programs and services.

Greg Pruett, senior vice president of corporate relations at PG&E Corporation, says that the company is constantly innovating methods by which to reach out to customers regarding information about climate change.

Said Pruett: "With this solar-powered billboard -- the nation's first -- we increase the amount of clean, renewable energy we provide our customers. We also hope to capture the imagination of Americans about the actionable steps one can take to reduce their environmental impact."

Prominently displayed and visible from a long distance, the billboard features 20 different solar modules. Each provide up to 3.4 kilowatts of renewable solar energy to the PG&E grid. In addition, the company replaced the billboard's halophane lights with LED lights, which use a significantly less amount of energy.

Adam Browning, Executive Director of the Vote Solar Initiative, says that solar power is at the crux of California's main environmental strategy, which is a mixed plan that includes both meeting the overall increased electric demand while working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fighting global warming.

Provided by SunTech Power, the billboard's solar panels collect direct current electricity from the sun, which is then converted into alternating current power and fed into the electricity grid using a grid-tie inverter. PG&E's billboard provides renewable energy to its customers because it is interconnected to the grid, as it is in South Africa but not in Canada, which, including the U.S., collectively are the only three countries in the world to use solar energy in this new way.