The Beacon Solar Project is a photovoltaic power station in the northwestern Mojave Desert, near California City in eastern Kern County, California.[2][3] Split into five phases, the combined Beacon solar facilities generate 250 MW of renewable energy for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).[3] The five phases of the project, fully completed in December 2017, include a total of 903,434 individual solar photovoltaic modules, mounted onto Nextracker single-axis tracking systems.[4]
The Beacon Solar Project was originally proposed by NextEra Energy using parabolic trough mirrors as solar energy collectors for a solar thermal electric energy generation project. The solar thermal electric powerplant technology configuration raised significant concerns during the CEQA environmental permitting process. [5] Among the many environmental concerns, the natural gas supply, the wastewater management and disposal, and the water supply during construction and during operation of the plant were concerns specific to the solar thermal technology. The project was reconfigured, simplified and rescoped to a photovoltaic technology, eliminating the solar thermal technology concerns, though significant other environmental concerns remained.[6]
LADWP acquired the entire project, including the land and the environmental permitting for the site in 2012 as photovoltaic technology, which gained economic advantages over solar thermal and other technologies as a result of rapidly decreasing costs of solar photovoltaic modules.[7] LADWP contracted Hecate Energy to develop three phases of the project, for 162 MW, and SunEdison, to develop the other two phases, for 88 MW.[8] SunEdison's stake in the project was later acquired by Capital Dynamics.[9] Hecate Energy's stake in the project was acquired by sPower[10] (Sustainable Power), and was completed by sPower, who was later acquired by AES.
In October 2018, LADWP commissioned the Beacon Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), with 10 MWh/20 MW of storage to stabilize the energy sent to the grid by the solar panels.[4]
^ Woods, Lucy (2014-07-23). "Work set to begin on LA's 250MW Beacon Solar project". PVTech.org. Power purchase agreements (PPA) for the 200MW are for 25 years, capped at US$85 per MWh.
^"Draft Environmental Impact Report: Beacon Photovoltaic Project" (PDF). Kern County Planning and Community Development Department. July 2012.
^ ab"LADWP Begins Construction on Major Solar Project that Will Deliver 300 MW of Solar Power to Los Angeles" (Press release). Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. July 25, 2014.
^ abTucker, Carol. "Beacon of Light: A Solar Plant Shines in the Mojave Desert". digital.apogee-mg.com. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
^"State of California, California Energy Commission Docket Log 08-AFC-02".
^Schneck, Gregory (13 May 2013). "Letter to California Energy Commission". Beacon LLC.
^Clarke, Chris (July 22, 2014). "L.A. to Break Ground on Big Desert Solar Project". KCET.
^"Amendment to the Beacon Sites 1, 3, and 4 PPAs" (PDF). Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. April 27, 2016.
^"Resolution No. 017-110" (PDF). Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. November 15, 2016.
^"sPower Gets $434M in Financing for Its Beacon Solar Projects". sPower. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
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