SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--EDF Renewable Energy (EDF RE) announces the signing of a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with MCE for up to 186 megawatts peak (MWp) / 150 MWac from the Desert Harvest Solar Project, in Southern California. The Project is expected to begin delivery of clean electricity to MCE starting in 2020.
Located on approximately 1,200 acres of land managed by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the largest Solar Energy Zone (SEZ) in the U.S., the Riverside County, California solar project will utilize horizontal single-axis tracking solar photovoltaic (PV) technology. The electricity generated at full capacity is enough to meet the consumption of up to 73,000 average California homes. This is equivalent to avoiding more than 300,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually1 which represents the greenhouse gas emissions from 72,000 passenger vehicles driven over the course of one year.
“EDF Renewable Energy is pleased to partner with MCE to supply affordable, in-state solar energy to its customers through the Desert Harvest Solar Project,” commented Ryan Pfaff, Executive Vice President of Development at EDF Renewable Energy. “Desert Harvest represents our second collaboration with MCE, and we look forward to working with them to make the Project a success, providing a boost to the Riverside County economy in parallel through the creation of new jobs and property tax base.”
“We’re grateful to EDF RE not only for investing in clean, renewable solar energy, but for partnering with us to grow California’s economy through in-state job creation,” said Dawn Weisz, CEO of MCE. “By turning to sources like solar instead of fossil fuels, together we build a clean and secure energy future for California.”
EDF Renewable Energy is one of the largest renewable energy developers in North America with 8 gigawatts of wind, solar, biomass, and biogas projects developed throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
1 According to US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies calculations.
About EDF Renewable Energy:
EDF Renewable Energy is a leading US independent power producer with 30 years of expertise in the renewable industry, covering all range of services from project origination, development, sales and marketing, to long-term asset management. EDF Renewable Energy specializes in wind and solar photovoltaic with presence in other segments of the renewable energy market: storage, biogas, biomass, hydro, and marine energy. EDF Renewable Energy’s North American portfolio consists of 8 gigawatts of developed projects with 4.1 gigawatts of installed capacity throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. The operations and maintenance subsidiary, EDF Renewable Services, operates 11 GW throughout North America. EDF Renewable Energy is a subsidiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles. EDF Energies Nouvelles is the renewable energy arm of the EDF group, the leading electricity company in the world. For more information visit: www.edf-re.com.
About MCE:
MCE is a not-for-profit, public electricity provider that gives customers the choice of having 50% to 100% of their electricity supplied from clean, renewable sources such as solar, wind, bioenergy, geothermal and hydroelectric at competitive rates. MCE provides service to 255,000 California customers in Marin County, Napa County and the cities of Benicia, El Cerrito, Lafayette, Richmond, San Pablo, and Walnut Creek. By choosing MCE, customers help support new in-state and local renewable energy projects and jobs. For more information about MCE, visit www.mceCleanEnergy.org.
