15-year agreement will provide San Mateo County, Los Banos customers with 76.35 MW of new renewable power
Scout Clean Energy and Peninsula Clean Energy have signed a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) that will provide San Mateo County and city of Los Banos customers with 76.35 megawatts (MW) from the repowering of the Pacheco Pass Wind Farm in Merced County, CA.
Purchased from International Turbine Research in 2018, Scout returned the wind farm in Pacheco State Park to operation and will now rechristen the project the Gonzaga Ridge Wind Farm, LLC (GRWF).
“We are excited to expand our partnership with Peninsula Clean Energy and the opportunity to continue to supply clean, renewable power to the customers of San Mateo County and Los Banos in Merced County while we complete our upgrade plans to the Gonzaga Ridge Wind facility,” said Michael Rucker, CEO, and founder of Scout Clean Energy. “In addition, we will continue to generate royalty revenues for the California Department of Parks and Recreation to help fund the operations of the park.”
“The Gonzaga Ridge project is an important tool in Peninsula Clean Energy’s efforts to provide 24/7 renewable power, with the added bonus of being located near our new Los Banos service territory,” Peninsula Clean Energy CEO Jan Pepper said. “It is also a great example of how state-of-the-art wind farms have become far more efficient and powerful in providing clean and affordable energy across our territories during both peak and non-peak hours.”
“Not only is this the second big renewable development right in our backyard, but it also smartly taps into the tremendous wind power available at Pacheco Park particularly at night and in spring,” Los Banos Mayor Tom Faria said. “This helps further diversify the natural, clean and affordable power that Merced County can increasingly produce directly for our residents.”
Construction, which will begin in late 2023, will also utilize a labor agreement between contractors and national unions.
The project will replace the existing 162-turbine wind farm in Pacheco State Park, originally built nearly four decades ago, with a much-smaller fleet of far more powerful state-of-the-art turbines that are expected to be operational by around the end of October 2024.
While the existing 162 turbines produce 16.5 MW, Scout is planning a total GRWF capacity of 147.5 MW of wind energy and a 50-MW four-hour Battery Energy Storage System. The completed project upgrades would be one of the first repower projects on state land in California.
GRWF will be located about 10 miles from the groundbreaking 200-MW Wright Solar Project, which in January 2020 became the largest renewable energy installation at the time ever built for a Community Choice Aggregation agency to officially go online. Wright Solar was Peninsula Clean Energy’s first project located in Merced County and California’s Central Valley.
About Peninsula Clean Energy
Peninsula Clean Energy is a Community Choice Aggregation agency. It is the official electricity provider for San Mateo County and, beginning in 2022, for the City of Los Banos. Founded in 2016 with a mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the county, the agency serves 295,000 customers by providing more than 3,500 gigawatt hours annually of electricity that is 100 percent carbon-free and at lower cost than PG&E. As a community-led, not-for-profit agency, Peninsula Clean Energy makes significant investments in its communities to expand access to sustainable and affordable energy solutions. Peninsula Clean Energy is on track to deliver electricity that is 100 percent renewable by 2025. The agency has earned investment grade credit ratings from Moody’s and Fitch. Follow us at PenCleanEnergy.com, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
About Scout Clean Energy
Scout Clean Energy (www.scoutcleanenergy.com) is a renewable energy developer, owner-operator headquartered in Boulder, Colorado with over 1,200 MW of operating assets. Scout is actively developing a 5,000 MW portfolio of onshore wind, solar PV, and battery storage projects across 14 US states. Scout has expertise in all aspects of renewables project development, permitting, power marketing, finance, construction, 24/7 operations, and asset management. Scout is a portfolio company of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners.