California & Midstate Take Lead On Renewables / New Wind & Solar Projects In Central California

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) says in a May 2013 update that there are 1222 MW of utility scale solar projects operating in California, 3525 MW under construction and 14465 MW in the  pipeline to be built. That’s a total of over 19,000 MWs – more than half the US pipeline.

Like California, the rest of the nation is installing solar faster than any other energy source.The U.S. installed 723 megawatts (MW) of solar energy in Q1 2013, which accounted for over 48 percent of all new electric capacity installed in the U.S. last quarter. Overall, these installations represent the best first quarter of any given year for the industry says the SEIA.

If they are closing nuclear power plants in the state they are adding new solar to replace it on the way to having 33% or more renewable energy sources.

Solar power generation on California’s grid set a new all-time high output of 2,071 megawatts at 12:59 p.m. Friday June 7, said officials at the California ISO, the state agency that balances customer demand on regulated power utilities with power generation from commercial vendors.
That nearly equals the 2,250 megawatts of nuclear-powered generation that was lost in January, 2012, when small amounts of radiation began leaking from Southern California Edison’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, at Camp Pendleton.
This week SCE announced they would close the plant permanently.

Focus On Mid California
The San Joaquin Valley continues to be a hotbed for renewable power projects including solar and wind.
Over 500 megawatts of solar projects are under construction or scheduled to be built in the next few years in Kings County,mostly by major solar players Recurrent Energy and SunPower. The state’s first large solar plant was built a few years ago near Avenal.Now the owners of that project – NRG has talked to the city about expanding and adding more arrays and donated $50,000 to the town’s new skate park.

Earlier this year an EIR for a giant 2.5 thousand MW solar ” industrial park” in Westlands Water District also in Kings County got underway – by far the largest on the drawing boards,perhaps anywhere.

Next door in Fresno County there is over 1000 MW under development and several hundred MWs built in Tulare County with about the same in the pipeline.

Not all the projects are super large.

The State of California is planning to install 2.2 MW of solar arrays near the Pleasant Valley prison in Coalinga according to a  public notice. The 11.1 acre project would produce direct  current and convert it later to alternating current before it is delivered to the prison owned distribution system.

In Tulare County a score of 1 to 10MW solar projects scattered around the county are now being built to help bolster power to rural areas of the county. Each is a $7 million building project – good news for the local property base too.

On a much larger scale near Mojave a 450MW solar project is being proposed next to the Edwards Air Force base a public notice from Kern County says.

Kern County is the leader in renewable projects with both wind and solar.

Kern’s solar stats are impressive both in the San Joaquin Valley side and on its sunny desert lands. As of 2011 there were 12 PV projects in the Valley totaling 1033.5 MW. On the desert side there were 19 projects totaling 1813 MWs. Solar thermal permits include the Beacon Solar Energy project with 250MWs. That’s a total of almost 3100 MWs of applications

On Kern’s wind front there were 1171 MW of energy projects permitted from 2005 to 2010. Current installed capacity is 783 MW. Total wind projects with pending applications  add up to 3575 MWs in the Tehachapi Wind Resource area says the Kern Wind Energy Assn.

The Alta Wind Energy Center is a wind farm located in Tehachapi Pass of the Tehachapi Mountains, in Kern County, California. As of 2013, it is the largest wind farm in the world, with a combined installed capacity of 1,320 MW (1,770,000 hp). The project, being developed near Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm – site of the first large-scale wind farms installed in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s – is “a powerful illustration of the growing size and scope of modern wind projects”.
Southern California Edison has agreed to a 25-year power purchase agreement for the power produced as part of the power purchase agreements for up to 1,500 MW (2,000,000 hp) or more of power generated from new projects to be built in the Tehachapi area. The project will “reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 5.2 million metric tons, which is equivalent to taking 446,000 cars off the road”.[1] A total of 3,000 MW (4,000,000 hp) is planned.
The wind farm is being developed by Terra-Gen Power which closed a US$1.2 billion financing deal in July 2010 with partners that included Citibank, Barclays Capital, and Credit Suisse. After many delays, the first phase began construction in 2010. Financing for additional phases of $650 million was secured in April 2012. Construction of the Alta Wind Energy Center is expected to create more than 3,000 domestic manufacturing, construction, and maintenance jobs, and contribute more than a billion dollars to the local economy.
The latest approval comes for the Alta Wind Energy project 11 miles east of Tehachapi .The BLM has approved the 153MW,2593 acre project that will tie into the SCE Windhub substation.BLM approved the latest project May 24.

Enter Warren Buffett

One major major player in California (and everywhere) is Berkshire Hathaway’s MidAmerican Renewables that has invested in both solar and wind in California in the past year.

Last November, MidAmerican Wind, a subsidiary of MidAmerican Renewables whose parent company is MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, announced it has completed the acquisition of the 168-megawatt Alta Wind VII and the 132-megawatt Alta Wind IX projects from California Highwind Power, a subsidiary of Terra-Gen Power, LLC. The projects are located near Tehachapi, Calif., and will consist of a total of 100 Vestas 3-megawatt V90 wind turbines.

The Alta Wind VII and Alta Wind IX projects bring MidAmerican Wind’s renewable energy portfolio to 381 megawatts.

“The completion of this acquisition marks MidAmerican Wind’s second acquisition of wind generation assets in 2012,” said Tom Budler, president of MidAmerican Wind. “We are pleased to add the Alta Wind VII and Alta Wind IX projects to our generation portfolio.”

In April 2013, MidAmerican Solar and SunPower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWR) marked the start of major construction at the Antelope Valley Solar Projects – two projects co-located in Kern and Los Angeles counties in California – with a community celebration. The 579-megawatt development will employ approximately 650 workers during a three-year construction period; generate more than $500 million in regional economic impact, the majority of which will be generated during construction; and serve California’s growing electricity demand with clean, renewable solar power.

The Antelope Valley Solar Projects make up the world’s largest solar power development under construction. When complete, the projects will provide enough energy to power approximately 400,000 average California homes.

Of course our little survey of Middle California would not be complete without mentioning  some of the largest concentration of solar panels anywhere  – in SLO County where 775 MWs is under construction including the huge Topaz Solar Farm,also owned by MidAmerican. A few miles north in Monterey County another 280 MW project is planned near Parkfield, famous for temblors being proposed by Element Power.