Los Angeles approves 300MW of PV

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has approved 300MW of solar development agreements.

The agreements include the 250MW Beacon project to be built in Kern County and 50MW of inner city solar projects, which will receive payments under LADWP's feed-in tariff programme. The agreements were signed on Tuesday.

The projects still require approval by the City Council, but could power up to 150,000 homes while having solar generate energy were it will be used will save transmission costs and increasing grid stability.

Board president Mel Levine said the agreements are a “win-win for the businesses and people of Los Angeles who will benefit from solar power development right in the city”.

“These solar projects will help spark economic development and jobs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel power plants, and meet L.A.’s renewable energy mandates” said Levine.

Los Angeles mandates include 25% renewable energy by 2016, and 33% by 2020.

The approved projects include 250MW spread across five separate sites, collectively known as the Beacon project. SunEdison will build two of these, totalling 88MW, and developer Hecate will build 162MW.

Under the contracts for four out of five of these projects, SunEdison and Hecate are also obliged to build 50MW of smaller projects within Los Angeles. These projects will receive the LADWP FiT and complete the FiT's initial 150MW allocation.