The Westlands Solar Park is large-scale solar power project in Kings County south of Fresno, California. It intends to build many photovoltaic power plants with a capacity totaling upwards of 2,000 megawatts (MW), larger than the world's largest photovoltaic power plants operating as of 2017. It will be constructed on brownfield land owned by the Westlands Water District that is unusable for agriculture due to excess salt pollution.
History Initial operation of a 2 MW demonstration project began in 2016, with the power sold to Anaheim Public Utilities. Additional projects of 20 MW and 250 MW are in various stages of planning, as of 2017. The developers planned to have 700 MW online by 2021, with full build-out by 2025. The real estate investment firm CIM Group joined the project in 2014. In 2017, plans for the site were downsized from 2,400 MW to 2,000 MW and to . Construction began in 2020.
The first 125 MW phase of the Aquamarine project opened in September 2021, with the second 125 MW opening by the end of the year.
The 250 MW Westlands Solar Blue also has 225.0 MW of batteries. Chestnut has 135 MW of batteries. The 19.9 MWAC (26 MWDC) Westlands Almond is part of a agrivoltaics scheme, using sheep for vegetation control.Green Street Power Partners completes its largest solar project to date in California, Solar Power World, Kelsey Misbrener, October 9, 2023 Westlands Grape and Cherry are expected to be completed in December 2024.
RE Slate, Mustang One and Two, RE Kent South, and American Kings Solar are solar plants which border Westlands Solar Park to the northeast with a combined total of 441 MW of capacity.
Phases
Project Capacity Status Commission Date Power purchase agreements References Westside Solar WSP PV1 2 MW Operational Anaheim Public Utilities Westlands Almond 20 MW Operational October 2023 CISO Aquamarine Westside 250 MW Operational September 2021, February 2022 SMUD, SVP, VCEA Chestnut Westside 150 MW Operational December 2023 Westlands Solar Blue 250 MW Operational December 2023 Westlands Grape 246.4 MW In Development Westlands Cherry 249.7 MW In Development Westlands Pomegranate 250 MW Proposed Westlands Solar Park, California, Power Technology, May 20, 2020
Electricity production It produced 4,739 MWh in 2020.
See also
List of largest power stations in the United States List of photovoltaic power stations Solar power in California
References
External links Official site Google Earth KMZ file