8minute Solar Energy’s Eland Stage 1 and 2 projects would each include 200 megawatts of solar capacity, along with at least 100 megawatts — and more likely 150 megawatts — of battery capacity, based on Eric Montag, LADWP manager of strategic initiatives.
The total project would add up to 400 megawatts of solar and 300 megawatts of electricity storage and may be submitted for approval as soon as LADWP’s next commission meeting on July 23.
Talking in a June 18 commission assembly, Montag explained the Eland Stage 1 and 2 jobs as groundbreaking not only for LADWP but for the U.S. utility sector at large.
“This really is the lowest solar energy cost in the United States, along with the greatest and lowest-cost joined solar and high-capacity battery energy storage from the U.S., and we believe in the world today,” he told LADWP commissioners.
The projects would sell their 200 megawatts of solar power under a 25-year power-purchase arrangement with LADWP at a cost of $19.97 each megawatt-hour.
That’s lower than the sub-$25 per megawatt-hour price that Texas municipal utility New Braunfels Utilities obtained because of its 225-megawatt solar PPA with Engie-affiliated Long Draw Solar back in December, one of the lowest PPA prices confirmed in the U.S. and the lowest supported in Texas.
Based on Colin Smith, senior solar analyst with Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, the most recent record-setting solar PPA prices in the U.S. are coming from areas like West Texas and Nevada.
It is also well under the $35 to $38 a megawatt-hour — in that time another low-price listing for solar that programmer minute provided in its first big solar PPA with LADWP back in 2016.
“We used to discuss how solar PPA prices were competitive with other production resources,” Smith stated. “Now we’re seeing solar-plus-storage together as providing greater capacity and competitive with new-build natural gas and other sources of power.”
Meanwhile, the price for the project’s battery capacity, based on Montag’s presentation, is an additional $13 per megawatt-hour for the 100-megawatt plan, or $33 per megawatt-hour when combined with the solar. There is an additional $6.65-per-megawatt adder for the 150-megawatt option for under $40 per megawatt-hour combined.
These are near price points being set by current jobs announced in Nevada and Arizona by utilities seeking to fulfill gigawatt-scale energy storage targets, Smith noted.
8minute’s job with LADWP will comprise about 65 megawatts of solar PV beyond its own nameplate capacity to serve the battery storage to be added to the project, Montag said.
That’s because the Kern County transmission corridor in which the projects must be built, already the home of about 1 gigawatt of solar PV, has a maximum capacity for how much electricity it could carry to Los Angeles.
However, the 100 to 150 megawatts of batteries to come together with the project will”take that extra 65 megawatts past that transmission capability and store it,” Montag explained.
How large batteries are transforming the solar landscape
The batteries will serve numerous purposes, he explained. To begin with, they will function as a shock absorber of sorts for the solar farm, maintaining every phase’s output to the transmission system as close to a steady 200 megawatts as needed.
Secondly, and more importantly, they will absorb surplus solar generated throughout the day and release it through the late afternoon and evening to bolster the dropoff in solar generation, combined with the steep rise in customer demand for electricity as individuals come home from work.
As Montag explained,”As the sun goes down, for the other 1,000 megawatts of solar we have without batteries, the gas-fired production and hydro need to compensate for this.” And like the state as a whole, it’s expecting to have less peaker capability in future years to deal with the issue.
In LADWP’s case, it and fellow investor-owned utility Southern California Edison are facing the closure of many”once-through cooling,” or OTC, gas-fired power plants in the next several years, due to their effects on the nation’s coastal water quality.
Montag mentioned the need to make up for these closures as a fantastic reason for LADWP’s commission to encourage the larger 150-megawatt storage option, noting that”we believe that is likely to be quite essential to replace some of these OTC units. We are likely to require clean capacity on the system, which is a great way to do it.”
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced in February that LADWP would not spend billions to rebuild those crops, which provide about 1,660 megawatts of production capacity, but rather will replace them with clean-energy alternatives. These choices could include around 1,800 megawatts of energy storage, according to programs from consultancies Navigant and WorleyParsons presented to LADWP earlier this season.
Energy storage at the scale of projects including LADWP’s with 8minute, or the”hulkingly large” solar-storage projects declared by Nevada usefulness NV Energy last month, are now capable of turning solar farms to something nearer to a dispatchable resource, he noted.
“We’ve known for a long time that California has become the No. 1 state for solar on the utility side along with the distributed generation side,” he said. “But on the utility side, we have known there’s likely to be a need for a lot more jobs” to fulfill the state’s long-term 100 percent clean energy objectives.
“This is a significant undertaking, with a significant battery storage element — and it is most likely the very first of many to come.”
Jeff McKay, director of marketing at minute, echoed this sentiment in a Monday email.
“This is what the future of energy looks like and we are thrilled to be co-creating that future in collaboration with our fellow innovators at LADWP. Together, thanks to Eland’s innovative storage and 24/7 dispatch capacities, we’re working to dispel misconceptions about the accessibility and long-term viability of solar power.”
