Valley Clean Energy makes major solar-power purchase
Yolo County, CA, Feb. 20, 2020 — The Valley Clean Energy Alliance (“VCE”) announced today that its board of directors voted on Thursday, February 13, to purchase 50 megawatts of renewable power from a new solar park located in Kings County, CA. The power from the park will replace current short-term power contracts allowing VCE to deliver higher levels of renewable power at competitive prices.
VCE’s 15-year contract with Aquamarine Westside, LLC, CIM Group’s solar project, will commence when the project enters commercial operation, anticipated in 2021. The Aquamarine project is located in Westlands Solar Park, a 21,000-acre, master-planned clean energy park with over 2 GW of solar production potential.
“Valley Clean Energy is pleased to have CIM Group’s Aquamarine project as a new, long-term partner,” said Don Saylor, a Yolo County supervisor and VCE board chair. “This solar project is a win-win enterprise, generating cost effective renewable power on brownfield land that is unusable for agriculture due to excess salt accumulation in the soil.”
The Aquamarine project was selected via a solicitation process in which dozens of projects competed. The decision was based on criteria adopted by the VCE board designed to select cost effective California renewable projects that minimize impacts on prime farmland and avoid environmentally- protected species and habitat. Westlands Solar Park scored well in these criteria and has strong support from both agricultural and environmental organizations.
“We considered location, sensitivity to impacts on land and the environment, development progress, renewable technology and economics in making our choice,” Saylor said.
In addition to this first 50 MW, Saylor said the VCE board looks forward to contracting for additional energy in the near future. He added that VCE is actively taking steps with multiple renewable power producers to procure 75 percent renewable energy by 2022.
“Each move we make toward ‘greening’ our power portfolio with cost effective clean sources is a step toward a better energy future for our planet,” added Dan Carson, Davis City Council member and VCE board vice-chair.