-August 4,2019-

New 70MW solar farm planned in south Tulare County

Tulare County intends to adopt a Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Deer Creek Solar I Project. The project site is located on 378 acres of private land near Terra Bella in unincorporated southwestern Tulare County. Road 224 borders the west side of the property, Avenue 96 to the south, and SR 65/CR35 to the east.  The solar farm would generate approximately 70 mega-watt (MW) ac photovoltaic (PV) energy generation facility, battery energy storage system and associated infrastructure.It would transmit the power generated directly to Southern California Edison’s (SCE) 66kV Poplar-Terra Bella line. The power would then be sold to California investor-owned utilities, municipalities, or other purchasers.

Kings largest solar project gets hearing

At an August 5th Panning Commission meeting Recurrent Solar is proposing to build RE Slate Solar Generation Project, a 300 Megawatt photovoltaic solar facility on 2,490 acres of privately-owned,mosly fallowed or pasture land in unincorporated Kings County.

The project site is generally bound by Avenal Cutoff Road to the northwest, Jackson Avenue to the north, the Kings River floodplain to the east which trends north-south between 22nd Avenue and 23rd Avenue, and Laurel Avenue to the south. 

This would be the largest solar farm by generation in Kings County built on land just east of I-5. A county staff report says the project site is located on low or very low priority farmland. 

The company’s’ operational statement says construction of the solar facility is expected to begin as early as October 2020 and could occur in phases. Project construction is expected to take 14 months. The project would operate year-round to generate solar electricity during daylight hours and would store and dispatch power at the energy storage system during both daylight and non-daylight hours. The anticipated operating life of the facility is up to40 years. Following the operating period, the facility would be either repowered or decommissioned. 

Property owners are Westlake Farms, C/O Ceil Howe III, Sandridge Partners, c/o John Vidovich  and Westlands Water District.

Power that will be generated by RE Slate will be bought by Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) who signed two long-term agreements for the largest utility-scale, solar-plus-storage projects to be built in California last fall. The agency is one of a dozen of state community choice energy providers that have sprung inCalifornia competing with the big utilities. The other solar project is in Kern County.

The contracts are the result of a competitive bidding process that began in September 2017. SVCE’s collaboration with its neighboring Community Choice Energy agency, Monterey Bay Community Power (MBCP) took advantage of economies of scale for the combined four counties, allowing for more purchasing power to invest in these long-term agreements. The two agencies issued a joint RFO which received over 80 offers for new projects that were in various stages of development. The overwhelming response represents the vast amount of interest in new renewable energy development that continues to grow..

 The community choice agencies will take 195MW o f that power from the 300MW Slate project. Communities who receive this power  could include San Luis Obispo  and Santa Barbara governments who recently  joined the Monterey group.

A second big solar project being filed by Westlands Solar Park – a 250MW project called Aquamarine  will likely be the subject of a Kings planning  hearing perhaps by September. The big renewable energy project sits on 2500 acres, also near the Avenal Cutoff.

Westlands Solar Park is actively working on permitting of two additional meg-solar projects nearby.

Westlands Solar Blue has filed a preliminary application at the beginning of this year for a 250MW project on 1950 acres located on Laurel in western Kings County.

The same developer filed for a project called Chestnut, a 150 MW solar farm on 980 acres located between the Avenal Cutoff and Hwy 41.

Westlands Solar Park has stated they hope to phase-build up to 2000MW of power in the area in the Westlands Water District on salt damaged land no longer fit for farming. They hope to have 700MW on line by 2021.

Westlands Solar Park was highlighted in the LA Times a few days ago. “The biggest solar project being planned in the Central Valley is Westlands Solar Park, where construction of the first 670 megawatts is scheduled to begin in the next few months, said Daniel Kim, vice president of regulatory and government affairs for the developer, Golden State Clean Energy. The project could eventually grow to 2,700 megawatts of power across 20,000 acres, which is larger than any solar power facility in the world today.

The massive solar project will be built on “drainage-impaired” farmlands served by Westlands Water District, where the soil has become loaded with crop-killing salts — and toxic selenium — because clay layers beneath the dirt prevent irrigation water from percolating down into the underground aquifer.”

Pacific Ethanol reports loss 

SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 31, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX), a leading producer and marketer of low-carbon renewable fuels and high-quality alcohol products in the United States, reported its financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019.

Neil Koehler, Pacific Ethanol’s president and CEO, stated, “We continue to operate efficiently in the current poor margin environment by reducing our operating costs and targeting yield improvements, energy reductions, lower carbon intensities and increased sales of high-quality alcohol and feed products. The end result is that while crush margins improved only slightly in the second quarter our loss available to shareholders was $8.0 million, an improvement from a loss of $13.2 million in the first quarter and our adjusted EBITDA increased significantly to a positive $7.2 million in the second quarter, up from a positive $1.6 million in the first quarter.

“We are encouraged by the EPA’s final ruling on E15 in June to allow year-round sale and use of higher ethanol blends. The market is already experiencing some incremental demand as a result of this ruling, with material growth expected in the years to come. Long term, we remain confident that the compelling cost, octane and carbon benefits of ethanol will drive both new domestic and export demand and we are taking the necessary steps to best position Pacific Ethanol to benefit when market conditions improve.

More Central Valley prisons add more solar

The Department of General Services proposes a photovoltaic carport system be installed above an existing parking area located at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Pleasant Valley State Prison. The proposed Project will include the construction of 4.34 acres of single-story PV carport canopies above existing parking areas. The canopies will support solar panels that will produce approximately 2,306 kW of energy.

Also in the works is a similar solar parking  lot canopy project at Avenal State Prison.