Dive Summary:
- SolarReserve, a solar project developer, has received unanimous approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to sell power from the Rice solar energy project.
- The project will be the first large-scale solar project in California that includes energy-storage capabilities and generate more than 450,000 megawatt-hours of clean energy to the state's grid.
- The energy will be sold to Pacific Gas and Electric under a 25-year power purchase agreement; the project is expected to break ground in early 2014 and be operational in mid-2016.
From the article:
Kevin Smith, CEO of SolarReserve, notes that the CPUC made it clear that the project's ability to store energy was a key factor in approving the amended Rice contract. In the CPUC's 5-0 unanimous vote, Catherine J.K. Sandoval said, "This particular project will also offer storage, which is a key component, and make it therefore hopefully more flexible in terms of being able to help us support integration. I look forward to this technology coming into California and helping us with renewable integration."
Also in the vote, Commissioner Mike Florio said, "Eight to 10 hours of fully dispatchable storage is quite impressive and offers significant benefits to the system that we don't yet know how to quantify fully, but there's definitely value there. There is a similar project reaching completion in Nevada, and hopefully this is the first of many." ...