Westlands Solar Farm – $38 Mil Project Breaking Ground
New EIR Would Build Valley’s Largest Solar Array Near Tranquility
“Go Solar man,it’s cool” was a phrase right out of 60s era. Today, it’s big business as the latest construction figures locally or Wall Street stock prices this week – can attest to.
Solar power projects from residential rooftop to utility-scale arrays are breaking ground at a record pace this year in the Central Valley. While the entire construction-based economy, from home building to new commercial activity has improved since the recession year of 2011 – the growth in the value of solar energy permits has been, well – going through the roof.
According to Construction Monitor reporting service, during the first ten month plus of 2011 (through Oct 19), there were 200 residential solar projects permitted valued at $3 million in the Central Valley in Fresno,Madera,Tulare and Kings Counties.
For the same period in 2012 the number of residential solar projects numbered 1639 with a value of $26 million.
This year also through October 19, residential solar permits in the region number 2758 with a value of nearly $36 million.
On the commercial side – solar’s growth is also dramatic. In 2011 through the same date there were 6 commercial solar projects valued at a total of $3 million.
Accelerating Pace
In 2012 through mid-October, were 45 projects and the value jumped more than 10-fold to nearly $34 million. In 2013 the number has accelerated again to 68 solar projects in the Central Valley so far this year – at a value $109.7 million.
That amounts to about one quarter of all the commercial building activity in the 4-county region this year.
Combine residential and commercial solar construction value in 2013 – it’s in excess of $144 million – that’s more than ALL categories of building permit activity in the region in 2011 when we generated $129 million in building permits!
$38 Million Project
Some of this year’s solar permitting is based on a backlog of projects that have been slowed by opposition or other issues. Case in point is the 18MW Westland Solar Farm project – a $38 million solar farm on Fresno’s westside on 90 acres at 18393 W Jayne Ave.
The applicant’s permit had been held up by a lawsuit from the Farm Bureau challenging a Williamson Act ruling by Fresno County. Attorney for WSF – John Cardot of Coleman and Horowitt LLP says the Superior Court in Fresno ruled in favor of Westland Solar Farms granting the tax break last winter and grading on the project is now underway.
”We were granted our building permit last week and with construction starting- we expect to have the facility operational in February 2014.”
Tulare County too has seen a half dozen smaller utility-scale projects break ground this year developed by Immodo adding up to $42 million and a few more are expected.
Meanwhile,scores of Central Valley industries and ag enterprises looking to lower their utility bill and generate a power supply for themselves are making news this year adding self generation.This past few weeks 2 projects in Tulare County’s east side received their permits.
Woodlake’s Visalia Citrus Packing Group is installing a 1.1 megawatt solar unit at their Woodlake Packing house this fall. The ground mounted units are being installed by Sacramento-based Coldwell Solar and are valued at $3.6 million in their building permit.
The solar arrays will handle most of the power needs at the Ave 344 packing house and be in service by the end of this year.
Also last month Exeter’s International Paper is installing more solar power panels at their Anderson Rd cardboard box plant according to their building permit.The project is valued at $1.8 million as listed in the permit.The box maker already has some solar panels at their Exeter manufacturing plant and the additional units will enable more of their power to be supplied on site,saving them money. SPG Solar of Novato is the contractor.
And there are more in the pipeline.
On the smaller scale commercial enterprises in Tulare County now can use a new financing tool through the Tulare County PACE Program recently approved by the BOS.”California manufacturers already pay 50% higher electricity rates than the national average” say Mike Washam, director of the program in the county.
Indeed, both PG&E and SCE rates are higher than inflation says Washam (see chart). PACE offers 100% financing for up to 20 years.Washam says there is already $13 million in applications pending from Tulare County companies including a dairy and packing house.
On a larger scale, Tulare County is processing an EIR for Wellhead Solar near Ducor for an 80MW project
New EIR For Valley’s Largest Solar Farm
On a mega scale, San Francisco-based Recurrent Energy has just filed to begin an EIR process as of October 16 in Fresno County for a 400MW solar farm. The 3875 acre project is in Westlands Water District and is named Tranquility Solar. If things go right there will be plenty of activity in Tranquility.
The project was originally proposed in 2011 but the company pulled the application in 2012. Now its back and Recurrent, who has a good record of building what they propose – could begin construction in about a year.The non-prime, dry farm land is 5 miles east of Hwy 5 straddling Hwy 33 at Manning Ave. At 400MW this would be by far the largest Valley solar farm around – on the order of the big Carrizo Plain, SLO County projects being built. The Tranquillity project could boast as many as 2.5 million PV panels and be worth perhaps three quarters of a billion dollars.
Popularity of Solar
Solar has taken off based on a number of factors. The state mandates utilities buy renewable power to cut global warming.Solar panels costs and efficiencies have improved dramatically and a cadre of companies, large and small are ready to save both businesses and home owners money by putting up solar panels.
If saving money works for you, you might to to look into solar no matter if your politics are red or blue. One player that is the largest in the state in this category is SolarCity Corp, a publicly-traded solar installer with 7200 solar systems constructed in the state at homes, businesses and public institutions.
SolarCity Is Tops
In the Valley so far this year the company has installed 768 home solar projects at around $16 million by far and away the top solar contractor.
This week SolarCity’s stock has caught the eye of traders on Wall Street with the stock up from $9 a year ago to around $60 today.
Recently SolarCity made news locally when they got the nod to build solar panels at 12 Visalia schools saving the Visalia Unified School District $627,000 in electrical costs in its first year of operation. The systems combined will generate 2.35 MW.