The San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce membership boasts a weighty representation on a list of the world’s most innovative companies this year.

Chamber members First Solar and Pacific Gas and Electric Company were both ranked in the top 10 most innovated companies by Fast Company magazine. First Solar, a solar module manufacturer, ranks No. 6, while Pacific Gas and Electric Company ranks No. 7. Both companies are working locally on the Topaz Solar Farm project, a 550 megawatt solar power plant, proposed the Carissa Plains.

“These companies are known locally as leading-edge and inventive, but this ranking quite literally puts them in a whole new category,” San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce President Dave Garth said. “We’re very proud that not just one, but two, of our 1,400 members are listed among the top companies in the world."

Overall, Fast Company recognized 250-plus companies, including more than 75 non-U.S. businesses. The magazine analyzed information on thousands of businesses across the globe. The result identifies creative models and progressive cultures, as well as revenue growth and profit margins, to define the many forms of innovation that exist across the business landscape. 

“The fact that San Luis Obispo County has the No. 6 and No. 7 ranked companies working right in our backyard is indicative of what great opportunities for leadership there are within our county, which translates into an opportunity for California and the rest of the country,” said Kathryn Arbeit, First Solar’s director of business development. 

Not only is First Solar the first renewable-energy company to be added to the S&P 500, but it was the “first panel maker to cross the $1-per-watt threshold, making its energy competitive with power produced by conventional means,” according to Fast Company. 

PG&E’s No. 7 ranking is based on the company’s portfolio, which is “heavy on hydro, nuclear and natural-gas power, and serves 5 percent of the U.S. population while producing only 1 percent of the industry's total emissions,” according to Fast Company.

Click here to read the Fast Company articles on First Solar and PG&E, and to see the complete list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. For more information on the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, call (805) 781-2777.