PG&E of California has formed a subsidiary to provide $60 million in financing for installation of solar electric systems at up to 1,000 homes and businesses.

The program will finance 100% of the installation for homeowners, who will lease the system from designer/installer SolarCity and participate in power repurchase agreements. PG&E gets the lease financing revenues, plus keeps all federal, state and local tax credits and incentives.

The program is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.

As we've said before, this is the model smart utility companies should be pursuing. Instead of centralized control, utilities such as TVA should be looking at ways to capitalize on the transition to distributed power generation.

More info:

• PG&E press release
• SolarCity website