EDF Renewables North America has signed a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) to provide energy from the 70MWac/100.8MWdc Desert Harvest II solar photovoltaic project under a Renewable Energy Credit (REC) + Index structure.
Image: Solar Panels. Photo: Courtesy of Neville Micallef/FreeImages.com
The solar project is expected to supply renewable power to SCPPA’s participating members – Anaheim, Burbank, and Vernon – from 2020.
EDF Renewables has also signed a long-term financial hedge for power with Morgan Stanley Capital Group.
Under the agreement with SCPPA, EDF Renewables worked with California municipalities to create a structuring solution to address the challenges posed by the California ‘duck curve’.
The PPA structure provided to SCPPA will protect the buyer from exposure to merchant prices through the utilization of a long-term hedge, coupled with a 35MW, four-hour energy storage system (ESS).
The project is located in Riverside County, California, an area designated by the Federal Bureau of Land Management as a Solar Energy Zone and Development Focus Area – land set aside for utility-scale renewable energy development.
Desert Harvest II, which utilizes horizontal single-axis tracking solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, has also been designed to generate clean energy while protecting wildlife habitat and public lands.
EDF Renewables grid-scale power executive vice president Ryan Pfaff said: “EDF Renewables is pleased to partner with SCPPA’s participating members – Anaheim, Burbank, and Vernon – to supply affordable, in-state solar energy to their customers from the Desert Harvest II Solar Project.
“Desert Harvest II represents the company’s second collaboration with SCPPA, and we look forward to working with them to make the project a success, providing a boost to the Riverside County economy in parallel through the creation of new jobs.”
The project will generate enough clean energy to power 35,000 average California homes, equivalent to avoiding more than 173,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
SCPPA executive director Mike Webster said: “EDF Renewable’s Desert Harvest II Solar Project will help to allow our participating member utilities to be on track to achieve their renewable production goals of 40% by the end of 2024.”