Duke Energy Renewables has acquired three solar power projects in California from SunPower totaling 55MW.

The sites include the 20-MW Rio Bravo I, the 20-MW Rio Bravo II, and the 15-MW Wildwood Solar II solar power plants. They are located in Kern County, California, adjacent to two existing solar sites owned by Duke Energy Renewables.

"These solar projects are excellent facilities that increase our solar presence in California by 50 percent," said Rob Caldwell, president, Duke Energy Renewables and Distributed Energy Technology. "As we continue to grow our footprint in the state, we're pleased to provide cost-efficient, sustainable power systems that contribute to California's leadership in renewable energy."

The acquisition was completed in late December, the same month the facilities were placed in service. Southern California Edison is purchasing the power generated by the plants under 20-year agreements.

"Forward-thinking utilities today are diversifying their energy portfolio with increasing amounts of solar capacity," said Ty Daul, SunPower senior vice president, Americas Power Plants. "We are proud to partner with Duke Energy to serve more California customers with affordable, emission free solar power generated from these facilities."

The sites consist of high-efficiency SunPower solar panels. More than 2,600 MW of solar power plants worldwide are using SunPower's leading solar technology.

Operations in California

In December, Duke Energy Renewables also completed its 20-MW Longboat Solar Power Project in San Bernardino County, California, which was acquired from EDF Renewable Energy and announced in March of 2016. They are Rio Bravo I (20MW) and II (20MW), Wildwood II (15MW), and Longboat (20MW).

In addition, Duke Energy Renewables has six other solar power projects in California that began operations prior to 2016, including Sunset Reservoir (5MW), Highlander (21MW), Pumpjack (20MW), Wildwood (20MW), Seville I (20MW) and II (30MW).

(Photo: SunPower's Wildwood solar project. Source: SunPower; courtesy of Swinerton Renewable Energy)