US independent power producer (IPP) Avantus has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Clean Power Alliance (CPA) in California for the output of a 200MW solar PV project, with a 200MW/800MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).
Avantus plans to begin construction at the Rexford 2 solar-plus-storage project in Tulare County, California, next year, and is aiming to begin commercial operations and the trading of power under the PPA in May 2029. Avantus will own and operate the project and sell power to the CPA, a not-for-profit electricity provider that serves more than three million residents and businesses in California. The companies estimate that the project will be able to meet the power demand of 84,000 Southern Californian homes.
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“Rexford 2 is a sound investment in California’s clean energy future,” said CPA vice president of power supply Lindsay Descagnia. “This project provides a fixed long-term price, helping protect our customers from energy market volatility while delivering renewable energy and battery storage that can help meet demand when it matters most.”
While Avantus did not name the solar modules it plans to use at the project, it noted that it plans to use the Fluence Smartstack battery energy storage solution at the facility.
These batteries will use domestically manufactured steel and components, as the US looks to expand its domestic manufacturing capacity of a number of products and components in the clean energy sector; last month, Moustafa Ramadan and Joe Hennessy of PV Tech Market Research wrote a piece for PV Tech in which they outlined how the US has sought to expand manufacturing capacity of clean energy components beyond just solar PV modules.
The news follows Avantus’ closing of financing for its Aratina 2 solar-plus-storage project, also in California, through financiers BBVA, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Santander. The IPP has also signed a more conventional PPA for that project, agreeing to sell power generated to local utility Southern California Edison for 15 years.
