The largest renewable energy installation ever built for a community choice aggregation (CCA) agency is officially online: Peninsula Clean Energy has started to provide solar power to California’s San Mateo County from the 200 MW utility-scale Wright Solar project located in the nearby Central Valley.
Peninsula Clean Energy has an exclusive 25-year power purchase agreement with Wright Solar Park LLC to buy all of the project’s electricity. The facility was constructed by Swinerton Renewable Energy with roughly 400 union workers from the surrounding areas that were hired as part of a five-union project labor agreement.
Laborers, electricians, ironworkers, carpenters, operators and engineers installed roughly 650,000 4-by-2-foot solar panels and accompanying equipment in only 11 months.
“This is actual new steel in the ground that will send more clean and affordable power to our customers. As a leader among CCAs in California and nationwide, we are proving that aggressive movement toward 100% carbon-free power can be both environmentally and economically beneficial,” says Jan Pepper, CEO of Peninsula Clean Energy. “Wright Solar is just the beginning of what is possible for providing good jobs and strong economic benefits to areas such as Merced County in California’s Central Valley.”
The project adds to an escalating trend of new development initiated by CCAs that is advancing clean energy, economic development and green jobs throughout California and elsewhere. California’s 19 CCAs have on average added roughly 1,000 MW annually in long-term renewable energy purchase agreements and are expected to make long-term investments in more than 10,000 MW of clean energy resources and storage by 2030.
The Wright project is owned by Centaurus Renewable Energy and the construction and operations are managed by Clēnera LLC.
Photo: The Wright Solar project
