By: Valley Clean Energy
Governor Newsom recently visited a Valley Clean Energy solar and storage farm in Winters to celebrate a major clean energy milestone. It’s just one of six energy storage projects set to supply electricity to VCE customers in Yolo County over the next 12 months.
Yolo County, CA. — On April 25, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom visited the Putah Creek Solar Farm in Winters to announce a major clean-energy milestone for California: As of this month, he told the audience, the state has enough battery capacity to store 10,000 megawatts of electricity.
Putah Creek is a 3-megawatt solar facility with batteries that can store up to 3 megawatts of electricity during peak energy-generating times, and then discharge it after the sun goes down, powering 600 homes. Valley Clean Energy — a community choice aggregator that supplies electricity to the cities of Winters, Davis, and Woodland as well as unincorporated Yolo County — has a 20-year contract to buy 100% of the solar farm’s energy.
VCE representatives Bapu Vaitla (Vice-chair, Board of Directors), Mitch Sears (Executive Officer) and Jesse Loren (Board member) were at the site to welcome Governor Newsom. “We’re not just thrilled that Governor Newsom picked a powerful Yolo County backdrop for his announcement,” says Vaitla, who is also a Davis City Councilmember. “We’re proud that our programs and policies are helping California achieve important clean energy milestones.”
In fact, Putah Creek Solar Farm is just one of six active and soon-to-open battery storage projects that VCE contracts with:
Operating:
- Putah Creek (Yolo County): 3 MW of battery storage
- Tierra Buena Battery Storage (Sutter County): 2.5 MW
- Resurgence Solar (San Bernardino County): 75 MW
Online soon:
- Willy 9 Chap 2 (Kern County): 36 MW – planned for summer 2024
- Gibson (Yolo County): 13 MW – planned for early 2025
- Goal Line (San Diego County): 2.5 MW – planned for early 2025
Even more are on the way! See the full map at https://valleycleanenergy.org/power-sources-2/
Battery-enhanced solar projects like Putah Creek Solar Farm make the grid more reliable and resilient. They also bring VCE one step closer to meeting our 2030 goal of providing 100% renewable energy to customers throughout Yolo County. Thanks to projects like the Putah Creek Solar Farm, the entire state is well on its way to meeting California’s commitment to provide 52,000 megawatts of battery storage capacity by 2045.
About Valley Clean Energy
Valley Clean Energy — or VCE — is the official electricity provider for residential and commercial customers in Woodland, Winters, Davis, and unincorporated Yolo County. We’re a not-for-profit public agency, which means that we’re working 100% for our customers. VCE keeps program control and revenues right here at home, where we can create jobs and build local clean energy projects. We reinvest dollars to boost our local economy while taking control of our clean energy future. More information is available at https://valleycleanenergy.org/.
