The largest solar-plus-storage project in the U.S. has been completed and is now operational. The Edwards & Sanborn Solar + Energy Storage project occupies over 4,600 acres in Kern County and hosts 1.9 million solar panels produced by First Solar.

Wit a capacity of 875 MW DC solar, the facility is expected to deliver enough electricity to the California grid to power the equivalent of 238,000 homes and to avoid the release of 320,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. The system includes nearly 3.3 GWh of energy storage and a 1.3 GW interconnection capacity.

The energy storage component is made up of more than 120,000 lithium-ion battery modules supplied by LG Chem, Samsung and BYD. Project engineering required 98 miles of MV wire and over 361 miles of DC wiring. The $1.7 billion system supplies power to the city of San Jose, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the Clean Power Alliance and Southern California Edison, among others.

The project team included renewable energy developer Terra-Gen and Mortenson as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor.