8minute Solar Energy unveil another massive Californian solar plus storage project

8minute Solar Energy is to partner with Californian locally operated electricity provider Clean Power Alliance to develop a massive new solar and storage project, measuring in at 400MW in solar capacity with 180MW/540MWh of energy storage.

8minute Solar announced last week that it had executed a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Clean Power Alliance, which serves approximately one million customers across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties in California, for the electricity generated from the to-be-constructed Rexford 1 Solar & Storage Centre in Tulare County.

There aren’t a lot of specifics for the Rexford 1 Solar & Storage Center as yet, with base capacity figures of 400MW of solar and battery storage of 180MW/540MWh.

When operational, expected for some time in 2023, the project is expected to provide enough electricity for the equivalent of over 370,000 residents and offset approximately 600,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, the equivalent of planting 12,000 trees, every day, for ten years in a row.

“The recent blackouts and continued wildfires in California offer sobering proof of the urgent need for more renewable and reliable energy generation that both fortifies our grid and fights climate change – and large-scale solar paired with energy storage is the most efficient, lowest-cost way to achieve just that,” said Dr. Tom Buttgenbach, Founder and CEO of 8minute.

“We are proud to partner with Clean Power Alliance, the largest clean choice energy provider in California. Our new generation of solar-plus-storage power plants are the future of energy – replacing an aging fleet of fossil fuel power plants with more economical and cleaner solutions and creating good jobs when they are needed most.

“This partnership is yet another example of California taking the lead on next-generation technology, and we expect to build a lot more solar and energy storage centers across the United States.”

Set to be constructed on private, low-productivity disturbed farmland in Tulare County in Central California, construction is expected to begin in early 2022 and create over 400 direct jobs and approximately one-thousand indirect jobs, as well as contributing over $200 million to the local economy over the life of the project.

The long-term PPA contract, signed with Clean Power Alliance (CPA), marks the largest solar-plus-storage project for CPA, but also the largest for any community choice aggregator to date.

“Solar-plus-storage is not only the cleanest way to increase grid reliability, it’s also the smartest and most cost-effective,” said Ted Bardacke, Executive Director of Clean Power Alliance.

“Batteries are the cleanest and smartest way to reduce grid stress-induced outages in the future,” added Bardacke. “We are committed to aggressively ramping up battery storage investments so that our customers always have reliable electricity while we continue the statewide transition to a clean energy future.”

Rexford 1 was one of two projects CPA approved, along with the 89MW Chalan Solar plus Storage project, which will also have 25MW/100MWh of storage capacity. Set to be built in Kern County in Southern California, the project is being developed by Miami-based solar developer Origis Energy.

Chalan will create 100 construction jobs and is currently expected to come online in December 2023.

“The Origis team is honored to collaborate with CPA and proud that our Chalan Solar plus Storage Project will help supply their environmentally conscious customers,” said Edwin C. Moses, Origis’ Managing Director of Project Development. “Solar plus storage on this scale will help CPA, and California overall, achieve its renewable energy goals.”