EDF awarded PPA for 111.2 MW U.S. solar plant

EDF Renewable Energy (EDF RE) so liked working with Southern California Edison (SCE) that they’ve decided to do it again.

Nearly two years after the pair collaborated on 24.3 MW Catalina Solar 2 Project, EDF RE and SCE have signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for the 111.2 Valentine Solar Project. Valentine is located adjacent to the Catalina project in Kern County’s Mojave Desert.

The new project, nearly five times larger than Catalina, is expected to be commissioned and producing power in December 2019.

Valentine will cover approximately 1,260 acres of private land and will incorporate horizontal, single-axis tracking solar PV and generate enough to avoid releasing 225,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse-gas-emissions calculator.

The latest project reflects EDF’s desire to move aggressively into the U.S. market. In October, its Renewable Services division captured an asset-management and operations-and-management portfolio equal to 200 MW.

There are 206 solar projects in the portfolio spanning across 13 states from New Jersey to Hawaii, as well as an equally diverse range in capacity from 36 kW up to 25 MW, as pv magazine reported.

In addition, EDF RE also purchased U.S. solar company groSolar in April, which provided the new company with an immediate 150-MW base from which to expand its U.S. operations.