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OAKLAND — The chances are high that Christmas tree lights shining in downtown Oakland and in nearby areas are powered by fossil fuels churned out at a local power plant. That could change with the installation across the city of massive 45-ton vaults and cables larger than a burly man’s biceps, which will carry cleaner energy to Bay Area customers.

The new system won’t be complete until June. But the next wave of green technology quietly but visibly put in place at the corner of Third and Castro streets Tuesday afternoon marked the end of a two-year project aimed at keeping up with a growing demand for energy while reducing local dependence on fossil fuels.

On Tuesday, Pacific Gas & Electric crews gingerly laid the foundation for a line that will transmit power like a giant extension chord to downtown Oakland, Berkeley, Piedmont and the northern tip of Alameda from outlying areas during peak hours.

The lines through which power will travel are connected with each other at regular intervals within other 10-foot-by-27-foot vaults resembling cinder blocks installed throughout the city.

The 13-foot pit into which crews lowered the giant vault Tuesday was dug just blocks from the waterfront power plant that currently supplies fossil fuel energy during peak hours to customers in the target area. The hope is to switch to renewable sources when the demand is highest for electricity — summer and the period between Thanksgiving

and Christmas, said PG&E project manager Alain Billot.

Among the workers were 16 Oakland residents employed through a partnership among PG&E and several local organizations including Cypress Mandela Training Center.

This is a green job because it’s more efficient, said Arthur Shanks, executive director of the Cypress Mandela program.

The green job corps workers helped create the infrastructure for the project for which planning began in 2007 and has cost as much as $70 million, PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian said.

The result will be a bump in energy output from 200 to 400 megawatts, Sarkissian added. Each megawatt is the equal of 1 million watts.

That means customers could be lighting up a lot of trees next year but with energy from geysers in Sonoma County and a natural gas-fired power plant in Pittsburg.

“It’s balancing the load so we don’t have to use peak power from plants,” PG&E inspector Mike Mutto said.