Peninsula Clean Energy Signs Contracts Expanding Renewable Energy, Storage Capability

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 25, 2023

California community choice aggregator Peninsula Clean Energy on Jan. 24 said that it has signed contracts for energy storage, geothermal, wind and small hydropower projects.

Nova III will be Peninsula Clean Energy’s first stand-alone storage project and will provide up to 50 megawatts of four-hour lithium-ion battery storage over 15 years beginning in August 2024. The project, developed by Calpine Corporation in Riverside County, California, displaces fossil fuel infrastructure as it is located on the same site and uses existing interconnection infrastructure of the former 750-MW Inland Empire gas turbine, the CCA said.

The Whitegrass No. 2 project will provide Peninsula Clean Energy with 6 megawatts of geothermal power over 20 years. Open Mountain Energy is developing the project in Lyon County, Nevada, with power coming online by the start of 2025.

The Burney Creek Hydroelectric Project will provide three megawatts of small hydroelectric power over 15 years from an existing Snow Mountain Hydro site in Shasta County, California, beginning in January 2024.

CalWind’s Wind Resource 1 began a three-year contract with Peninsula Clean Energy in January to provide nearly nine megawatts of wind power near Tehachapi in Kern County, California.

In addition to the four newly signed contracts, the Heber 2 geothermal facility began delivery in January and will provide Peninsula Clean Energy with 26 megawatts for 15 years. Peninsula Clean Energy signed the contract last year with Ormat Technologies, who developed the project in Imperial Valley, California.

The CCA said that all five projects will help Peninsula Clean Energy take important steps toward its goal of matching customer demand with 100-percent renewable power on an hourly basis 99 percent of the time by 2025.

The four newly signed contracts are the most recent to stem from a batch of 70 project proposals that Peninsula Clean Energy received from a November 2021 solicitation.