The Desert Harvest 1 and 2 solar power plant is now built and operational according to EDF Renewables North America. The American subsidiary of the French group has just announced the news in a press release dated Friday, January 29. The solar plant will provide California with an additional 214 MW of clean energy and create jobs.
214 MW solar plant optimized to meet California demand
The solar power plant consisting of the Harvest Desert 1 and 2 projects is expected to produce up to 214 MW. It would generate enough clean energy to satisfy the consumption of 77,000 homes. This is also equivalent to avoiding the emission of 353,000 tons of CO2 per year.
The Desert Harvest 2 project also includes a 35 MW energy storage system with a 4-hour autonomy. This allows all the facilities to manage the significant daily variations in electricity consumption in the California market.
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Solar power plant benefits California job market
The construction of Desert Harvest 1 and 2 involved nearly 190,000 man-hours of work in partnership with the local trades and unions. These types of partnerships on renewable energy projects are very beneficial to the local job market. In total, they represent more than 1.5 million hours of work and more than 5,000 positions for California.
Two contracts with local energy suppliers
Desert Harvest 1 provides electricity to the public agency MCE under a 20-year PPA. Desert Harvest 2 itself provides energy and “renewable attributes” to the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) under a 25-year Renewable Energy Credit (REC) contract. Finally, EDF Renewables will provide operation and maintenance services for the plants.
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