EDP Renewables SA (EDPR), through its fully owned subsidiary EDP Renewables North America LLC, and California’s Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA) have executed a 15-year power purchase agreement under which RCEA will receive 100 percent of the output from a new 100-megawatt solar park in Kern County, Calif.
RCEA is a community choice aggregator serving more than 60,000 customers in Humboldt County.
Located near Bakersfield, Calif., the 100-MW Sandrini Sol 1 Solar Park is expected to be operational in 2022 and represents an estimated capital investment of more than $100 million.
RCEA and EDPR unveiled news of the PPA on May 6.
As the solar park’s only offtaker through the long-term PPA, RCEA will receive 100 percent of the project output. The project will generate enough electricity to meet approximately 45% of RCEA customers’ demand.
Sandrini Sol 1 will complement several local solar projects that are also under development, including RCEA’s 2.5-MW solar and storage microgrid project at the Redwood Coast Airport as well as PPAs for another 3 MW of local solar projects that were recently approved through RCEA’s feed-in-tariff program.
“The state has set a target for a 100% clean and renewable electricity mix by 2045, and RCEA has established the ambitious objective of hitting that target 20 years early, in 2025,” said RCEA Executive Director Matthew Marshall. “By providing enough affordable, renewable energy to meet almost half of our customers’ current electricity needs, the Sandrini Sol project is a major step toward achieving our local energy and climate goals.”
The agreement broadens RCEA and EDPR’s partnership and furthers the two companies’ commitments to growing renewable energy in California.
RCEA, EDPR, and others also announced on April 2, 2018, their entrance into a public-private partnership to pursue the development of an offshore wind energy project off the Northern California coast.
Established in 2003, RCEA is a local government joint powers agency whose members include the County of Humboldt, the seven cities within the county, and the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District.
The authority's purpose is to develop and implement sustainable energy initiatives that reduce energy demand, increase energy efficiency, and advance the use of clean, efficient and renewable resources available in the region.
The American Public Power Association has initiated a new category of membership for community choice aggregation programs.
