Commercial, Solar, Sourcing Renewables  -  February 7, 2022

Solar for SMUD, City of Santa Clara Begins Operation

PPAs signed by Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and the City of Santa Clara are now being fulfilled with the operation of Aquamarine, a 250 MW project within the Westlands Solar Park (WSP), located in the San Joaquin Valley.

SMUD will receive renewable energy credits associated with 75 MW of capacity from Aquamarine, which will also provide  50 MW to the Clean Energy Alliance. The City of Santa Clara, CA (Silicon Valley Power) will receive RECs associated with 75 MW of capacity. 

The 20,000-acre WSP was developed for multiple projects to meet the needs of public and private utilities, businesses, and other energy consumers. CIM Group is currently negotiating additional PPAs with other potential counterparties for Aquamarine and future projects within WSP and anticipates commencing construction of additional solar projects within WSP in 2022.

Aquamarine is the first utility-scale solar project within WSP. Construction of Aquamarine began in 2020 and concluded in December 2021 and began contributing renewable energy to the California grid. WSP is one of the largest permitted solar parks in the U.S. with the capacity to grow to more than 2,700 MW of renewable energy at full buildout and with the potential to provide clean energy to more than 1.2 million homes.

“California is blazing a path forward toward 100 percent carbon-free energy generation by 2045,” said California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot in a statement. “Aquamarine and the next projects will help us get there.”

WSP completed and certified programmatic environmental impact reports for the entire project, positioning it to permit and move forward on additional projects within WSP.  In addition, WSP is one of the few renewable energy zones identified as a Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) through the Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI) process.

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