Municipal power utility San Jose Clean Energy is celebrating with developer Terra-Gen as a new utility-scale solar and battery storage combined project both invested in is now delivering electricity in Kern County, California.
The Kern County Solar and Battery Storage Project was built by Terra-Gen to provide grid reliability, reduce the carbon footprint of electricity delivery and provide zero-carbon solar when demand was highest in the afternoon and evening hours, according to the release.
The solar farm portion of the Kern County project was built to generate 62 MW at capacity. The battery portion stores that solar power for the times when demand is highest but renewable capacity lower.
“SJCE’s long-term investment will produce enough clean electricity to power nearly 65,000 homes annually for the next 12 years—the same impact as taking more than 670,000 cars off the road,” said San José Mayor Sam Liccardo. “San José and SJCE continue to lead the fight against climate change by putting steel in the ground to improve our grid reliability.” Terra-Gen built more than 115 MW of new solar energy and new battery storage overall to meet the fixed delivery obligation in its 12-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with SJCE. SJCE contracted with Terra-Gen for a long-term PPA in April 2020, and the project came online on schedule and was built with union labor.
California is home to nearly a third of the nation’s total energy storage capacity. The total U.S. utility-scale battery capacity is estimated at more than 1,800 MW as of 2021 but may be nine times that by 2025, according to projections.