MidAmerican Solar and SunPower Corp. announced that the
first portion of the 579MW Solar Star Project, which consists of two projects located in Kern and Los Angeles counties in California is operational and is feeding energy to the California ISO grid.
SunPower designed the Solar Star projects and is owned by MidAmerican Solar. SunPower will also provide O&M services. Construction on the projects began in early
2013 and is expected to be complete by year-end 2015 and is currently employing more than 600 workers. When complete, the 579-megawatt Solar Star projects are expected to
have more than 1.7 million panels installed, covering 3,230 acres.
"This announcement is significant for the state of California," said Mike Fehr,
MidAmerican Solar's general manager at the Solar Star projects. "It
demonstrates that we are fulfilling our promise to the local community
and regulators and delivering expected results, based on our
construction timeline, to help California
meet its mandate to generate 33 percent of its power from renewable
sources by 2020. We want to thank the many stakeholders that made this
milestone possible, including California ISO, Southern California
Edison, county officials, local community members and contractors. We
remain committed to safely constructing one of the largest solar
developments in the world in the Antelope Valley area."
"We are pleased to connect and synchronize Solar Star's first
SunPower Oasis Power Blocks, totaling 57 megawatts, to the grid," said Jorg Heinemann,
SunPower executive vice president, customer operations and engineering,
procurement and construction. "The project partners are working well
together and with the community to deliver one of the world's largest
solar power plants on schedule."
The development is expected to generate more than $500 million
in regional economic benefits, the majority of which will be generated
during construction. Southern California Edison will purchase
electricity from the projects under two long-term power purchase
contracts.
MidAmerican Solar estimates that the projects will provide electricity
equivalent to powering nearly 255,000 average California
households. According to estimates provided by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, electricity generated from the projects will displace
approximately 570,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year – the
equivalent of taking more than 100,000 cars off the road.
