Pacific Gas & Electric, one of California’s biggest utility companies, is turning to solar power. PG&E CEO Peter Darbee (left) said the company plans to build and own solar installations. Currently, the utility purchases clean energy from third parties.

Darbee said the plan is to include a large-scale solar rooftop project “in the neighborhood” of SCE’s $875 million, 250-megawatt solar rooftop project.

However, the flailing economy and the structure of the solar subsidy has made building these solar facilities dubious.

“We will do a filing in the next quarter to make an equity investment in renewable energy,” Darbee said. “We are going to move to an equity investment because we have a tax appetite whereas so many other entities do not.”

Although the 30 percent tax credit is alluring, due to the economic climate fewer big companies are wanting to invest in these deals. However, the attraction for PG&E is that With distributed solar, the company could own and operate the panels installed on the rooftops of commercial buildings and homes.