Solar  -  February 3, 2021

Calif. community choice aggregation program sources from new solar project

A set of solar projects that will provide clean energy to MCE, California’s first Community Choice Aggregation Program, began commercial operation last week.

The Desert 1 Harvest project, completed by EDF Renewables, will provide the program with 114 MW of solar-generated energy through a 20-year PPA. A second project located adjacent to it, Desert 2 Harvest, will provide energy and renewable attributes to Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA).

“MCE’s partnership with EDF Renewables on the Desert Harvest project provided an exciting opportunity to invest in clean, renewable solar energy, while growing California’s economy through in-state job creation,” MCE CEO Dawn Weisz said in a statement. “Construction of projects like this that increase adoption of solar resources, instead of fossil fuels, helps us secure a clean energy future for California.”

The two projects were construction in Riverside County, Calif., on land administered by the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The land was previously specifically designated by the Bureau as a Solar Energy Zone and Development Focus area for utility-scale renewable energy.

The two projects feature horizontal single-axis tracking solar panels and the Desert Harvest 2 includes a 35 MW, 4-hour energy storage system. It is expected that the two projects combined will generate enough clean energy to power 77,000 average California homes and avoid more than 353,000 metric tons of CO2 annually.

EDF Renewables will perform operations and maintenance for the life of the agreement, including NERC compliance support, remote monitoring and balance-of-plant management to maximize power production.

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