EDPR Secures 15-Year PPA for 100 MW New California Solar Park

EDPR through and Redwood Coast Energy Authority have executed a 15-year PPA for 100 MW for the Sandrini Sol 1 Solar Park in Kern County, California.

EDP Renewables SA (EDPR), through its fully owned subsidiary EDP Renewables North America, and Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA) have executed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for 100 megawatts (MW) for the Sandrini Sol 1 Solar Park in Kern County, California.

Located near Bakersfield, the 100 MW solar park is expected to be operational in 2022 and represents an estimated capital investment of more than USD 100 million. The project will generate enough clean electricity to annually power more than 46,000 average California homes and will save approximately 177 million gallons of water a year.

As the solar park’s only off-taker through the long-term PPA, RCEA will receive 100 percent of the project output. RCEA is a community choice aggregator serving more than 60,000 customers in Humboldt County. This project will generate enough electricity to meet approximately 45 percent of RCEA customers’ demand.  The project will complement the several local solar projects that are also under development, including RCEA’s 2.5 MW solar and storage microgrid project at the Redwood Coast Airport as well as PPAs for another 3 MW of local solar projects that were recently approved through RCEA’s feed-in-tariff program. 

“The State has set a target for a 100 percent 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 project is a major step toward achieving our local energy and climate goals.”

This agreement broadens RCEA and EDPR’s partnership and furthers the two companies’ commitments to growing renewable energy in California, noting RCEA, EDPR, and others also announced on April 2, 2018, 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.”

EDPR’s operational footprint in California includes two phases of the Lone Valley Solar Park in San Bernardino County and three phases of the Rising Tree Wind Farm in Kern County – annually powering more than 101,000 average California homes.  EDPR NA will also construct the Sonrisa Solar Park, consisting of 200 MW of solar capacity and 40 MW of storage capacity, in Fresno County, and the 200 MW Sandrini Sol 2 Solar Park in Kern County, which are both anticipated to be operational in 2022.