Madison, Wis., Aug. 25, 2009—Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) ranked eighth out of 92 U.S. utilities for new solar power additions supplying the grid and second in the central U.S. region for total solar watts per customer. The rankings are part of an annual survey released by the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), which is comprised of 560 utilities and solar industry members.

MGE recently increased the capacity of its Clean Power Partners solar energy program to 1 megawatt from just 150 kilowatts in 2008. Clean Power Partners encourages customers to install solar photovoltaic systems on their homes or businesses and then sell the energy back to MGE. The solar energy is part of the company's green pricing program, Green Power Tomorrow.

"The combination of better technology and lower costs is making clean, renewable solar energy more attractive for our customers," said Greg Bollom, assistant vice president - Energy Planning. "MGE also has a number of solar demonstration projects in the community for customers to see how these technologies can be part of our energy supply mix," Bollom added.

SEPA's complete list of rankings, titled "2008 Top Ten Utility Solar Integration Rankings," can be found at www.solarelectricpower.org.

Also this year, MGE's Green Power Tomorrow program has the second highest participation rate of all investor-owned utilities according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewal Energy Laboratory.