San Jose Clean Energy and EDP Renewables North America on Wednesday signed a 20-year power purchase agreement for 100 megawatts of new solar energy and 10 MW of battery storage from the Sonrisa Solar Park in Fresno County, California.
Non-profit San Jose Clean Energy is a community choice aggregator run by the City of San Jose’s Community Energy Department. It began providing electrical service to over 300,000 customers in February 2019.
“Today’s investment will avoid more than 4.1 million tons of greenhouse gases from our air, bringing us another step closer towards meeting the aggressive emission reduction targets defined in our Climate Smart San Jose plan and securing a sustainable future for our community,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said in a statement.
EDP Renewables North America LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of EDP Renewables SA based in Madrid. Is developing the solar-plus-storage project in Fresno County south of San Jose. It is slated to begin operations in 2022.
With the signing of the San Jose PPA, the Sonrisa Solar Park is now envisioned as a 200 MW the solar-plus-storage project.
In June, EDP Renewables North America signed a 20-year PPA for 100 MW of solar and 30 MW of storage capacity with East Bay Community Energy, a community choice aggregator in Alameda County, California.
At the same time, East Bay Community Energy also signed a 20-year PPA for 57.5 MW of wind power from the Summit Wind project near Livermore in Alameda County, which is being developed by Altamont Winds LLC, a partnership of Salka LLC and a global private equity firm.
In April, the San Jose City Council approved a contract for the Northern California Power Agency to provide San Jose Clean Energy with wholesale energy services, including scheduling coordination and portfolio management and optimization services.
The recently signed PPA and the agreement with the Northern California Power Agency are both part of San Jose Clean Energy’s long-term plan to meet customer demand with clean, carbon dioxide free electricity.
In May, the city council agreed to expand San Jose Clean Energy’s revolving credit agreement with Barclays Bank PLC from $50 million to $80 million.
In a 2018 report, the staff of the California Public Utilities Commission estimated that by 2025 over 85% of the retail load served by the state’s investor owned utilities could be served by Community Choice Aggregators, up from about 20% currently.
The American Public Power Association, with 1,400 community-owned utilities as members, has established a new category of membership for community choice aggregators.
