EDPR North America has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement with Redwood Coast Energy Authority for its 100MW Sandrini Sol 1 solar park in Kern County, California.
Located near Bakersfield, Sandrini Sol 1 is expected to be operational in 2022 and represents an estimated capital investment of more than $100m (€91m).
RCEA, a community choice aggregator serving more than 60,000 customers in Humboldt County, will receive 100% of the project output.
The project will generate enough electricity to meet approximately 45% of RCEA customers’ demand.
Community choice aggregators enable local governments to secure power for residents, businesses and municipal use from alternative suppliers while receiving transmission and distribution services from their existing utilities.
Sandrini Sol 1 will complement several solar projects also under development locally, including RCEA’s 2.5MW solar and storage microgrid project at the Redwood Coast Airport as well as PPAs for another 3MW of local solar projects that were recently approved through RCEA’s feed-in-tariff programme.
“The state has set a target for a 100% clean and renewable electricity mix by 2045, and RCEA has established the ambitious objective of hitting that target 20 years early, in 2025,” said RCEA executive director Matthew Marshall.
“By providing enough affordable, renewable energy to meet almost half of our customers’ current electricity needs, the Sandrini Sol 1 project is a major step toward achieving our local energy and climate goals.”
The deal enhances an existing partnership between RCEA and EDPR, who in April 2018 announced together with others their entrance into a public-private partnership to pursue the development of an offshore wind energy project off the Northern California coast.
“EDP Renewables is excited to work with RCEA on the development of another renewable energy project to respond to the increasing demand for more clean energy solutions in California,” said Miguel Prado, EDP Renewables North America CEO.
“Sandrini Sol 1 represents EDP Renewables’ burgeoning presence in the California renewable energy market and reinforces our commitment to investing in the state.”