California Energy Commission approves 4.6GWh solar-storage project, opt-in scheme receives flood of applications

“This project exemplifies a community-focused approach that advances the state’s energy goals while creating benefits for local workers and residents,” said CEC Commissioner Noemí Gallardo.

Featuring a 1.15GW/4.6GWh BESS paired with a 1.15GW solar PV farm, DCEP will be built across 9,500 acres of land in Western Fresno County. With initial plans for DCEP including up to 800MW of electrolyser capacity, Intersect Power had earmarked the project as California’s “largest green hydrogen producer.”

That was until the San Francisco-headquartered developer dropped its hydrogen plans for the project towards the end of last year. As part of the California Energy Commission announcement of the project’s approval (12 June), the regulator hailed the BESS at Intersect’s DCEP to become the largest in the world.

However, with construction likely to take up to three years, a project of this size is unlikely to take the top spot. Just last week, AES Corporation completed the first 500MW phase of its Bellefield Solar and Storage project in Kern County, with another 500MW of each technology slated for completion by the end of next year, meaning its battery storage capacity will amount to 4GWh when fully operational.

Other independent power producers (IPPs), such as NextEra Energy Resources (NEER) are also constructing their own mega BESS projects within the Golden State. As reported by Energy Storage.news, NEER is currently undergoing permitting for an up to 3GW standalone energy storage project located in Fresno County.

Permitted under California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Assembly Bill (AB) 205, the opt-in certification scheme widened the CEC’s permitting authority during 2023 to also include BESS projects over 200MWh.

Although the California Energy Commission engages with local communities as part of the review process, the final decision ultimately lies with the state energy regulator. Because of this, the scheme has proved unpopular amongst some contingents.

As recently reported by Energy-Storage.news, a standalone BESS proposal from Engie currently under CEC review has attracted huge opposition, with one recent information meeting attracting over five hours’ worth of overwhelmingly negative public comment.

Some California lawmakers, including Assemblymember Dawn Addis, attempted to pass legislation relinquishing the CEC’s authority over BESS projects altogether.

With Dawn Addis’ jurisdiction covering the area affected by the huge battery fire at Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility which happened in January, the introduction of her ‘Battery Accountability and Safety Act’ drew widespread media attention. Despite this, the bill failed to make it past the first reading and has since missed the house of origin deadline.

Opening up the presentation on DCEP during the recent meeting, CEC Executive Director Drew Bohan described how staff had come to a decision after “exhaustively examining all aspects of the project” over the past nine months.

After multiple site visits and several local community engagement meetings, California Energy Commission staff concluded that “all impacts [of DCEP] can be mitigated to a less than significant level.” As part of its 1000+-page analysis, CEC staff also concluded that the project met all the requirements of AB 205.

Head of Environmental Permitting at Intersect Power, Marissa Mitchell, offered her “sincere thanks to CEC staff for their analytical rigour and their commitment to a very tough schedule afforded to them under AB 205.”

After deeming Intersect Power’s application complete during September of last year, the CEC has had only 270 days to come to a decision on whether to approve the project or not.

As recently reported by Energy-Storage.news, Fresno County Fire Department (FCFD) recently introduced a series of “fire mitigation payments” aimed at the developers of solar and BESS projects.

With both annual and upfront payments, FCFD planned to use the money to fund additional equipment required to combat potential future fires associated with solar and BESS projects.

Due to the huge scale of the DCEP and nature of the payment structure, Intersect Power was set to be impacted massively by these additional costs, with upfront payments of US$10.35 million along with an additional US$120 million across the lifetime of the project in annual payments.

During the recent CEC meeting, FCFD Assistant Chief Andy Cosentino revealed that although some had accused the fire department of singling out Intersect Power’s DCEP, its pricing structure was based upon a “holistic approach considering all known projects proposed for Fresno County.”

Although the CEC had initially approved FCFD’s funding proposal for Darden, Senior Information Officer Stacey Shepard informed Energy-Storage.news that the regulator had since changed its mind.

“Upon further review and consideration of all comments received and other factors, that is no longer the case [and] instead, binding arbitration is proposed to be the other alternative method of determining mitigation,” said Shepard.

“CEC Staff’s first choice has always been for the project owner to sit down with the FCFD and negotiate payments as mitigation for both direct and cumulative impacts,” she added.

Cosentino used his time at the recent meeting to urge commissioners to change the wording of the approval documents, requiring Intersect Power to fund additional firefighting equipment through the mitigation payments.

Intersect Power “is knowingly building in an area with extended response time and limited water supply… but is receiving the direct benefit of FCFD’s strength of resources for a fraction of the cost,” said the assistant chief.

FCFD Chief Dustin Hail reiterated the points raised by Cosentino, stating there’s “currently no way those fiscal numbers provided by Intersect Power will ever reach our budget and cover the protection needs.”

Mitchell revealed that an estimated US$40 million would be going towards FCFD, although the figure would depend on final tax calculations completed by the local assessor.