Completion Of California’s Slate Solar Project Makes Significant Impact

The demand for solar energy isn’t slowing down, especially in California.

According to PV Magazine, the demand was recently lessened when the renewable power division of Goldman Sachs started commercial operations at the Slate Solar and energy storage project in Kings County (California).

Recurrent Energy started construction on the project and sold it to Goldman Sachs in January 2021.

DH Blattner & Sons was the contractor of the project beginning in December 2020 and ending in 2022. Blattner Company, a Quanta Services company, is the parent company of DH Blattner & Sons.

The American Clean Power Association announced in February that the United States had surpassed more than 200 gigawatts of total operating utility-scale clean power capacity in 2021. Blattner significantly makes up to 25 percent of that renewable energy installed. 

The Slate Solar + energy storage project serves five California-based organizations. Solar Power World and PV Magazine both outline that the 390-megawatt project is supported by power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Bay Area Rapid Transit, Central Cost Community Energy, the Power and Water Resources Pooling Authority (PWRPA), Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) and Stanford University.

The project has allowed Stanford to become 100 percent reliable on renewable energy, a goal that was 13 years in the making. Stanford released its long-range energy and climate action plan in 2009.

“A project like this takes a lot of collaboration,” Blattner business development manager Candi Janssen said. “This project is significantly larger than the nation’s average solar site. We’re looking forward to continuing to be able to help California with their renewable energy procurement goals.”

The Slate Solar project will provide enough clean energy to power approximately 126,000 homes while displacing approximately 369,310 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. And, the battery storage component will allow the project’s customers to obtain more carbon-free energy in the evening hours and ensure grid reliability during times of peak demand.