BayWa RE has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with San Diego Community Power (SDCP) to acquire electricity generated by a 90 MW solar plus 70 MW storage project in California. The PPA is for energy from the Jacumba Valley Ranch (JVR) Energy Park, which BayWa RE is developing near Jacumba Hot Springs in San Diego County. The Jacumba site consists of flat, previously agricultural terrain, making it perfect for providing clean and dependable electricity to SDCP consumers.
The project is scheduled to begin construction in early 2022 and is expected to produce around 350 construction jobs through the use of a project labour agreement with local unions. JVR Energy Park is scheduled to become fully operational in the first quarter of 2023. The power plant will generate enough electricity to serve at least 52,000 SDCP customer residences yearly after it is linked to the San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) transmission system.
SCDP is a non-profit community choice aggregator that was founded in 2019 and began providing energy supply services to municipal consumers in the five member cities of Chula Vista, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, La Mesa, and San Diego in March 2021. It will also begin construction on the residential phase in the first quarter of 2022.
For the first time in the region, the initiative gives local control and consumer choice over large-scale energy decisions. The project has committed to financing upgrades to a nearby community park as well as the preservation of 435 acres of native habitat as part of its development plan. According to the developers, the plant would balance more than 500,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by the end of its life.