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.

According to a recent report from the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) the renewable energy and efficiency industries accounted for over nine million jobs in the U.S. in 2007. It grew three times quicker than the American economy in general and accounted for over one trillion (that’s right – trillion with a “t”) in U.S. revenues.

Among the sectors leading the industry in growth is solar energy. Great news for the planet but not so good for those who work in an industry like oil, who might be tempted to scream something like this at the solar industry.

Anyway, the ASES executive director Brad Collins said in a statement that, “There’s a new sense of optimism in the green economy.”

Based on the ASES projections in the report, the renewable energy and efficiency industry will produce approximately 37 million jobs and generate $4.29 trillion in revenue each year by 2030.

The anticipated work force vacuum created by this intense growth will primarily need to be filled by: “electricians, mechanical engineers, welders, metal workers, construction managers, accountants, analysts, environmental scientists and chemists.” So if you’re in high school or college and trying to decide what to do, those will definitely be hot spots for the environmentally-minded worker.