The solar farm includes the 200 megawatt (MW) Sandrini I project which has a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Shell Energy North America (SENA), and 100 MW Sandrini II, which has a 15-year PPA with Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA). Both phases of the project were commissioned in Q4, 2024.
Generating enough energy to power the equivalent of more than 76,000 California homes each year, Sandrini I has already disbursed more than $510,000 in tax payments to local governments since 2023. This has strengthened the local community by enhancing schools, roads, and other essential services. Additionally, approximately $15 million will be paid to local landowners, who lease a portion of their land to house the solar energy park’s infrastructure. Sandrini I & II employed more than 200 workers during construction and will create several permanent operations positions.
Power from Sandrini II will provide over a third of the total annual electric need for customers of RCEA’s community choice energy program. RCEA supplies more than 90 percent of the electricity for Humboldt County on California’s rural north coast. Completion of Sandrini II marks a large step toward RCEA meeting its goal of supplying 100 percent renewable energy to its customers by 2030.
RCEA is one of 25 community choice aggregators (CCAs) now serving communities in California. Sandrini II adds to 8,000 MW of new clean energy resources brought online to date by California’s CCAs. An additional 10,000 MW of new clean resources are in contract with these CCAs and are currently under development or construction. The CCAs’ clean energy projects collectively support over 36,000 construction jobs across California and the West.
“RCEA is committed to achieving our goal of supplying Humboldt County with 100 percent renewable energy” said RCEA Board Chair Sarah Schaefer. “Sandrini II is a welcomed addition to our energy portfolio. We are proud to see another high-impact solar project go to work on behalf of our community.”
The construction and ongoing operations of Sandrini I & II will continue to aid in local spending and support of small businesses - namely restaurants, hotels, and retailers - located near the project. Both phases of the solar energy farm also yield environmental benefits, including saving more than 381 million gallons of water each year compared to the amount of water that conventional generation sources would need to produce the same amount of capacity. These water savings, in turn, will help aid Kern County’s water conservation goals.
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