-October 6,2019-
More big solar projects for Kings County
The Kings County Planning Commission is expected to approve two new solar farms October 7 that would add up to to 400 megawatts and bring the total approved by the commission this year to 4 solar projects adding up to just under 1000MW.
All are to be located along the Avenal Cutoff just east of I-5.
This month both projects are being proposed by Westlands Solar Park. One called Chestnut is 150 MW the includes battery storage to be built on 1040 acres of open ground. The other is called Westlands Solar Blue and is a 250MW project on 1895 acres of poor grid farmland.
Earlier in the year Westlands Aquamarine at 250 MW was approved. Recurrent Energy’s RE Slate was the fourth project approved in 2019 at 300MW.
Principal withe Westland Solar Park Daniel Kim says it their intention to start construction on one or more of their projects this year.
A major incentive to do that might be the pending expiration of the 30% federal investment tax credit set to sunset by December 31.Unless Congress changes the law the 30% rate is available for systems placed in service only through December 31, 2019. The credit drops to 26% through the end of 2020, then 22% through 2021 before dropping to zero by the end of 2021.
Demand for more renewable power is coming from the rapid rise of Community Choice Aggregation(CCAs) agencies in the state who are negotiating with developers like Kim to supply their areas with power in the future looking to reach the state mandate of 100% renewables.CCAs are programs that allow local governments to procure power on behalf of their residents, businesses, and municipal accounts from an alternative supplier while still receiving transmission and distribution service from their existing utility provider. CCAs are said to be an attractive option for communities that want more local control over their electricity sources, more green power than is offered by the default utility, and/or lower electricity prices. CAS are replacing the private utilities like PG&E from the Bay Area down to San Diego including on the Central Coast.
SCE building new $5.4 million Visalia maintenance office
The 15,800 square feet project located inside of Southern California Edison’s substation in Visalia will consist of office and warehouse space to support SCE’s maintenance, test and transmission operations. The groundbreaking diehard $5.4 million project was in Sept. 2019 with an estimated completion date in the third quarter of 2020. There is no public access to the project site. The project should improve power reliability in the Visalia Industrial Park.
Amazon’s big order
Amazon recently announced the order of 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian, the largest order ever of electric delivery vehicles, with vans starting to deliver packages to customers in 2021. Amazon plans to have 10,000 of the new electric vehicles on the road as early as 2022 and all 100,000 vehicles on the road by 2030 – saving 4 million metric tons of carbon per year by 2030.