Projects
Capital Dynamics and 8minute partner on solar and storage center
Solar Industry Magazine – January 22
Capital Dynamics, an independent global private asset management firm, says its Clean Energy Infrastructure business has entered into a development partnership with 8minute Solar Energy through the equity financing and acquisition of the Eland Solar & Storage Center, a 400-megawatt solar and storage center project located in Kern County. The project features a 300-megawatt energy storage facility, making it one of the largest in the world. A long-term PPA has been secured to serve the power needs of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Proposed 2.2-GW storage project to use Navajo coal station power lines
Utility Dive - January 21
A proposal to build a 2.2-gigawatt pumped hydro storage facility in Arizona moved one step closer to reality last week after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted Daybreak Power’s application for a preliminary permit. The $3.6 billion project would be built at a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reservoir on the Colorado River and rely on transmission infrastructure that was part of the retired Navajo Generating Station coal facility. It would deliver power to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. The Navajo Energy Storage Station, as proposed, will rely on solar and wind energy to pump water from Lake Powell into an upper reservoir, and then allow the water to fall over turbines to generate around 10 hours of renewable energy on a daily basis.
Tri-State to add more than 700 MW of solar by 2024
PV Magazine – January 20
Tri-State Generation and Transmission, the power provider to 43 energy co-ops across the Mountain West, will add over 1 gigawatt of solar and wind generation by 2024 — raising its overall renewable energy mix to over 50 percent of generation. The cooperative will also pursue a 90 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from Colorado-based generation by 2030, based on 2005 emission levels. Tri-State will also be closing the Escalante and Craig coal power plants and the Colowyo mine ahead of schedule and canceling the proposed Holcomb Station coal plant project in Kansas.
Geothermal energy on the rise in California
Los Angeles Times – January 22
Three local energy providers signed contracts this month to purchase electricity from new geothermal power plants: one in Imperial County near the Salton Sea and the other in Mono County along the Eastern Sierra. The new plants will be the first geothermal facilities built in California in nearly a decade — potentially marking a long-awaited turning point for a technology that could play a critical role in the state’s transition to cleaner energy sources. Silicon Valley Clean Energy and Monterey Bay Community Power negotiated a contract with Ormat Technologies for 14 megawatts of power from a geothermal plant the company plans to build in Mono County. The rest of the facility’s capacity is already under contract to Colton, a city in San Bernardino County, under a deal signed last year. The Imperial Irrigation District agreed to buy 40 megawatts of geothermal energy from Controlled Thermal Resources’ Hell’s Kitchen geothermal plant over a 25-year contract the utility valued at $627 million.
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