Duke Energy Renewables, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, recently announced that its 150-MW North Rosamond solar project in Kern County, California, has begun commercial operation. It is the largest solar project in Duke Energy Renewables' fleet.
The 150-MW project, which contains over 477,000 solar panels, is located on approximately 1188 acres outside of Rosamond, California, and will power approximately 71,000 homes. The North Rosamond solar project is Duke Energy Renewables' sixth solar generation facility in Kern County.
"North Rosamond is a great addition to our growing solar portfolio," said Rob Caldwell, president of Duke Energy Renewables. "California is a leader in renewable energy, and we're pleased to support the state's efforts by continuing to provide cost-efficient renewable energy to meet residents' needs."
The energy generated from the North Rosamond solar project is being sold to Southern California Edison (SCE) under a 15-year agreement.
The project, which Duke Energy Renewables acquired from a subsidiary of Clearway Energy Group in April 2019, employed as many as 500 individuals during the peak construction period.
The facility's design, procurement of photovoltaic (PV) modules, inverters, balance of plant systems, and construction of the project were performed by First Solar Electric California's engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) subsidiary under a fixed-price EPC agreement for the project.
The U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation, the tax credit division of U.S. Bank; M&T Bank's Commercial Equipment Finance Group; and the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America provided tax equity financing to the project.
CIT's Power and Energy group led a consortium of lending institutions that provided construction loan and ITC bridge loan facilities to fund equipment, engineering, construction, and other costs needed to achieve final completion of the project. These facilities will be converted to a single term loan facility that will be used to finance the project over the next 15 years.
Duke Energy is one of the nation's top renewable energy providers — on track to own or purchase 8000 MW of wind, solar, and biomass energy by 2020.
