Three Kern County solar farms change ownership

BAKERSFIELD

January 10, 2017 8:45am

•  Duke Energy Renewables buys them from SunPower

•  “These … increase our solar presence in California by 50 percent”

Duke Energy Renewables says it has acquired three Kern County solar power projects from SunPower Corp. totaling 55 megawatts.

The sites are the 20-MW Rio Bravo I, the 20-MW Rio Bravo II, and the 15-MW Wildwood Solar II solar power plants, adjacent to two existing solar sites owned by Duke Energy Renewables.

"These solar projects are excellent facilities that increase our solar presence in California by 50 percent," says Rob Caldwell, president, Duke Energy Renewables and Distributed Energy Technology.

The acquisition was completed in late December, the same month the facilities were placed in service. Financial details of the deal were not specified in Tuesday’s announcement of the deal.

Southern California Edison is purchasing the power generated by the plants under 20-year agreements.

In December, Duke Energy Renewables also completed its 20-MW Longboat Solar Power Project in San Bernardino County, which was acquired from EDF Renewable Energy and announced in March of 2016.

In addition, Duke Energy Renewables, part of Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) of Charlotte, North Carolina, has six other solar power projects in California that began operations prior to 2016.

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=31895