California First to Generate 5% of Electricity From Utility-Scale Solar

Energy

Published: March 25, 2015 8:20 am

Last Updated: April 27, 2020 6:18 pm

California added nearly 1,900 megawatts of solar power generation in 2014 and became the first state to reach a total of more than 5% of its generation from utility-scale solar plants. The state now claims 5,400 megawatts of utility-scale solar generation.

Two utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) plants were added to California’s fleet of power plants in 2014, the 550-megawatt Topaz solar farm built by First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) and the Desert Sunlight plant, also 550-megawatt plant and another First Solar project. MidAmerican Energy Holdings, a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) company, owns Topaz and a consortium including a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc. (NYSE: NEE) owns Desert Sunlight.

Another two utility-scale plants that generate power with solar thermal technology also came online last year: the 377-megawatt Ivanpah plant and the 250-megawatt Genesis plant. Ivanpah was built by BrightSource and is owned by BrightSource, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG). Genesis is owned by Next Era, GE Energy Services and Sumitomo.

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The report was published on Tuesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which also noted:

California’s utility-scale solar production in 2014 was more than three times the output of the next-highest state, Arizona, and more than all other states combined.

The state of California’s renewable portfolio standard requires the state’s electricity providers to source 33% of their power from renewable sources by 2020. As of last year, California gets 22% of its power from renewable sources, including hydroelectric.