Portland General, ProLogis roll out solar project

SAN DIEGO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Portland General Electric (POR.N) and ProLogis (PLD.N) rolled out what they called the biggest solar power project in the U.S. Pacific Northwest on Tuesday, a rooftop installation capable of making 1.1 megawatts of power.

Thin film solar photovoltaic panels will be placed on 328,000 square feet of rooftop at three ProLogis distribution warehouses in Portland, Oregon, PGE and ProLogis said. ProLogis will lease the rooftop space to PGE.

Generating electricity for PGE customers will start in December, PGE said.

Peggy Fowler, CEO and president of PGE, said, "We will be putting solar power directly onto the grid, adding to the renewable energy PGE already is delivering to our customers."

ProLogis is the world's largest owner, manager and developer of warehouse and distribution facilities. This is its second large rooftop solar installation in the United States.

"ProLogis is committed to implementing enough renewable energy systems to obtain a combined generation capacity of over 25 million kilowatt hours per year by 2010," said Jack Rizzo, ProLogis' managing director of global construction.

Portland General Electric has 813,000 business and residential customers in Oregon.

ProLogis now has a total of about 6 megawatts of photovoltaic solar panel projects installed or under development worldwide, the company said. In March 2008, it announced a rooftop lease of more than 600,000 square feet to power a 2.4-megawatt installation with Southern California Edison, a unit of Edison International (EIX.N). (Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Gary Hill)