Clean Power Alliance executes PPA on 8minute Solar Energy’s 400-MW solar + storage project

8minute Solar Energy has executed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Clean Power Alliance (CPA). The 400-MW (300 MW_ac) Rexford 1 Solar & Storage Center in Tulare County includes 180 MW/540 MWh of energy storage.

When it becomes operational in 2023, Rexford will provide enough energy for over 370,000 Californians, making it the largest solar + storage project for CPA, and the largest for any community choice aggregator (CCA) to date. The projects combined will generate enough electricity to power 158,000 Southern California homes, approximately 8.5% of CPA’s overall demand.

“The recent blackouts and continued wildfires in California offer sobering proof of the urgent need for more renewable and reliable energy generation that both fortifies our grid and fights climate change — and large-scale solar paired with energy storage is the most efficient, lowest-cost way to achieve just that,” said Tom Buttgenbach, founder and CEO of 8minute. “We are proud to partner with Clean Power Alliance, the largest clean choice energy provider in California. Our new generation of solar-plus-storage power plants are the future of energy — replacing an aging fleet of fossil fuel power plants with more economical and cleaner solutions and creating good jobs when they are needed most. This partnership is yet another example of California taking the lead on next-generation technology and we expect to build a lot more solar and energy storage centers across the United States.”

The Rexford 1 Solar & Storage Center will be constructed on private, low-productivity disturbed farmland in Tulare County. Construction, which will begin in early 2022, will create over 400 union construction jobs, and approximately 1,000 indirect jobs, in addition to contributing more than $200 million to the local economy over the life of the project. The Rexford 1 project is the largest solar plus storage project CPA has contracted to date.

“Solar + storage is not only the cleanest way to increase grid reliability, it’s also the smartest and most cost-effective,” said Ted Bardacke, executive director of CPA. “We are excited to partner on a project of this scale with 8minute, a trusted Los Angeles-based developer that shares our commitment to accelerating the clean energy transition in California.”

Rexford 1 marks 8minute’s second project with a CCA. 8minute has contracted 4.5 GW of solar projects, with over 18 GW of solar energy capacity and 24 GWh of storage under development across California, Texas and across the Southwest.

News item from 8minute Solar Energy

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Original Source: https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2020/09/clean-power-alliance-executes-ppa-on-8minute-solar-energys-solar-storage-project/