EDF signs PPAs for huge California solar-plus-storage project

November 12, 2018
LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email
EDF’s 49MW West Burton battery project in England. Image: EDF.

Two community energy suppliers in California followed up an agreement to buy power from a large-scale solar-plus-storage farm with another, project developer EDF Renewables has announced.

Energy-Storage.news reported at the end of October that Monterey Bay Community Energy (MBCE) and Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SCVE) had agreed 15-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Recurrent Energy, the US developer owned by Canadian Solar.

Through that deal, MBCE and SCVE will buy 45% and 55% respectively of output from Slate, a 150MW solar farm in Kern County, paired with 45MW / 150MWh of lithium battery storage which enables four hours of dispatchable solar energy, helping mitigate late afternoon and evening peaks in demand as solar production tails off.

At around the same time, but not announced by EDF Renewables until a few days ago, the pair also brokered a PPA deal with EDF Renewables, the international clean energy development arm of European utility company EDF, again for a Kern County solar project.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

Not ready to commit yet?
  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

Big Beau Solar + Storage Project is 40MW / 160MWh of battery energy storage and 40MW of solar generation capacity, expected to reach commercial operation by the end of 2021. SVCE and MBCE will once again buy 55% and 45% of the power each in the same split as for the Slate project PPA.

“The inclusion of storage provides the agencies with a 100% clean and partially dispatchable product, allowing them to mitigate the ‘duck curve’ risk and monetise price spikes,” EDF Renewables product development director for renewables and energy storage Valeri Barros said.

Already a prolific adopter of solar and other distributed energy resources and technologies including electric vehicles (EVs), California now has in place a target to meet 100% of retail electricity sales with renewable sources by 2045.

Read Next

October 15, 2025
A flurry of grid-scale BESS project progress totalling more than a combined 1.5GWh in the past week, from Renalfa in Bulgaria, Engie in Romania, Nala Renewables in Finland and Metlen in Greece.
October 15, 2025
Takeaways from the first day of Energy Storage Summit Latin America 2025, including the Chilean and Argentinian markets.
October 14, 2025
Developer Epic Energy has commenced commercial operations at its 100MW/200MWh Mannum battery energy storage system (BESS) in South Australia.
October 13, 2025
Queensland’s Energy Roadmap 2025 suggests that by 2030, up to 4.3GW of short-duration energy storage could be operational.
Premium
October 10, 2025
Community-owned public power utility Denton Municipal Electric (DME) has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Jupiter Power covering offtake from one of the developer-operator’s standalone BESS projects destined for Robertson County in Texas. 

Most Popular

Email Newsletter