Dive Brief:
- Fresno County, California, planning commissioners have approved an eight-phase, 400 megawatt Tranquillity Solar project to be developed by Recurrent Energy under a power purchase agreement with Southern California Edison. Pacific Gas & Electric will build the necessary substation.
- Recurrent Energy expects the project to provide 250 construction jobs when building starts late next year, as well as 10 permanent and 40 temporary jobs when it goes online. The project is supported by the National Resources Defense Council, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, local and state politicians, and citizens groups.
- Tranquility will be built close to existing high-voltage transmission lines on retired agricultural land with poor soils and no habitat issues, and it requires no surface water allocation. .
Dive Insight:
Unless there is an appeal, the commissioners’ decision to approve the solar project is final and will not be reviewed by the County Board of Supervisors.
The development would be the biggest in Recurrent’s portfolio and the biggest in the solar-rich Fresno region.
Recurrent is buying the land from the Westlands Water District, which is pleased to have found a use for the land after being unable to lease it for agricultural purposes because of regional water constraints.
Recurrent's dust-control plans, aimed at minimizing the agricultural region’s endemic Valley Fever, won it the support of citizens groups. Unions approved of the added jobs, and environmental groups like the project's low water use and the absence of environmental or cultural resource conflicts on the retired agricultrual land.
Recurrent has developed 700 megawatts of solar capacity and operates 500 megawatts of capacity. It developed the 19-megawatt Adams East solar project near the Tranquillity site.
