California's newest solar project isn't powering homes. It's powering your water
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KERN COUNTY, Calif. — At the bottom of the San Joaquin Valley, a low-slung Midcentury building tucked into the green-gold hillside is the beating heart of California’s impressive water delivery system.For more than five decades, the Edmonston Pumping Plant has lifted water nearly 2,000 feet up the towering Tehachapi Mountains, connecting water from Northern California to 27 million people in the southern part of the state.
The plant houses 14 rumbling pumps in two football-field sized wings and is one of the most powerful water lifting systems in the world.But it can need upward of 800 megawatts of electricity to run, making it among the largest single power users in the state.Now the equation is changing.
On a recent weekday morning, dozens of state officials and energy industry representatives gathered at Tejon Ranch, just across the road from Edmonston, to celebrate a sparkling new solar plant that will help power the pumps.The 105-megawatt Pastoria Solar Project from Calpine, part of Constellation Energy Corp., represents the largest renewable energy project contracted by the California Department of Water Resources and is a major step in its plan to fully decarbonize operations by 2035, consistent with state law.
“Most Californians — the equivalent of 1 in 12 Americans — get water from the State Water Project,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the DWR.“To make that system carbon neutral by 2035, we need efforts like the Pastoria Solar Project.
When we achieve our clean-energy goal while continuing to deliver water supplies without interruption, we’ll set a standard for other public agencies across America.” Climate & Environment An immense solar-plus-storage power plant in the desert is now pumping out inexpensive clean electricity at full bore.The pumping plant draws its power from California’s main electric grid, and that will continue.But the ...