Dive Brief:

• The U.S. government has gone live with one of its largest ever renewable energy purchases.

• Sempra Energy’s 150-MW Mesquite 3 solar farm in Tonopah, Ariz., began selling electricity to U.S. Navy and Marine bases in California on Friday under a 25-year power purchase agreement between the Department of the Navy and Sempra, the Western Area Power Administration and Shell Energy.

• The energy from the solar farm will supply about one-third of the electricity needs of 14 naval installations in California, including San Diego’s naval base and the Marines’ Twentynine Palms and Camp Pendleton installations.

Dive Insight:

The Mesquite solar power purchases fit into a much larger program under which the Navy and the Marine Corps want to obtain 50% of their energy needs, both ashore and afloat, from non-fossil fuel sources by 2020.

The services hit the 50% mark for shore-based facilities last year, five years ahead of schedule.

In October, the California Energy Commission and the Navy signed a memorandum of understanding that includes plans to develop three battery and solar projects,

The first, 150 MW phase of Sempra’s Mesquite solar farm sells power under a 20-year PPA with Pacific Gas & Electric. The second, 100 MW phase of the Mesquite project is due to be completed by year-end 2016 and sells power to Southern California Edison under a 20-year PPA. 

Sempra is looking at expanding solar power production at the Mesquite site and is seeking an amendment of the Special Use Permit to add a 1,280-acre expansion area to the site.