The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last week approved Southern California Edison’s (SCE’s) application to build segments of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission (TRTP), a major transmission project and the first in that state specifically designed to access multiple renewable generation sources from remote renewable-rich resource areas.
The investor-owned utility had already started building the first three segments of TRTP and expects most of it to be online by the end of 2009. The CPUC on Thursday approved the utility’s application to build segments 4 to 11—173 miles of new transmission line.
The $1.19 billion high-voltage transmission line project will cover 250 miles when completed in 2014, and it is expected to move up to 4,500 MW of renewable energy generation to Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties from Kern County.
SCE said in a statement that the new line would help California meets its aggressive renewable energy goal of getting a third of its power from renewable resources by 2020. The state also recently enacted an ambitious program to cap most of the state’s greenhouse gases, including those from more than 600 power plants.
But the state has been battling budget shortfalls and public officials have been pressuring utilities to lay out the true costs to ratepayers of the transition to solar, wind, and other renewable sources of power.
Last week, for example, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) scrapped plans for a 55-MW project with First Solar Inc. because of concerns on costs, reported The Los Angeles Times. The 970-acre solar farm near the Salton Sea had been slated to begin construction in 2010, and it would have been the municipality’s first foray into solar power.
The cancellation comes months after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pledged to move the city entirely away from coal-fired generation by 2020 and to get 40% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
Not all projects have been stalled, however. First Solar, which makes thin film solar power panels, has more than 1 GW of projects in its pipeline. On Monday, the company announced in a joint press release with New Jersey–based NRG Energy that it had begun commercial operation of the largest photovoltaic solar project in California. Power generated by the 21-MW project in Blythe, Calif., is being sold to SCE under a 20-year power purchase agreement.
Located in Riverside County about 200 miles east of Los Angeles, the “Blythe plant is the largest thin film PV project in the U.S. and is five times the size of the next largest PV project in California,” First Solar claimed. About 175 people built Blythe during its three-month construction and installation period.
Sources: CPUC, SCE, The Los Angeles Times, First Solar
