US utility Avangrid – a subsidiary of energy multinational Iberdrola – will build its first solar PV project in California, building on the back of an existing wind farm fleet of over 500MW in the state.
The Camino Solar farm will be a 57MW project in Kern County deploying over 105,000 panels. Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) will be handled by Cupernito Electric, due to be complete and commercially operational in 2025.
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Avangrid is the US operating arm of Spanish utility Iberdrola, with both renewables development and electricity and natural gas distribution businesses.
“Cupertino Electric has built more than 40 renewable energy projects in Kern County, California, and we’re honoured to be involved with Avangrid’s inaugural project in the area,” said Chris Martin, vice-president of operations, energy for Cupertino Electric.
There are a number of large solar projects in Kern County, perhaps most notably the 2GW Bellefield solar-plus-storage project recently purchased by energy utility major AES. Matrix renewables also operates a 143MW/80MWh solar-plus-storage facility in the county, and Avangrid itself operates the 189MW Manzana Wind farm, to which Camino Solar will be next door.
In January, a new interconnection line between California and its eastern neighbour Arizona broke ground with the potential to add 3.2GW worth of solar PV capacity. The Ten West Link, as it is known, is seeking to continue the expansion of one of the US’ most promising and fertile regions for solar PV development.
This week, Avangrid broke ground on a 240MW PV farm in Texas, following the signing of a power purchase agreement (PPA) with social media platform Meta for another data centre in the region. Avangrid currently has 8.7GW of installed operational renewables capacity in the US.
