Largest Solar Farm In US Coming To Central Valley In California

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In general, solar and farming are not good friends. Actually, it’s not the farmers that are opposed to solar so much as people supported by fossil fuel interest groups who are paid to complain — loudly and often — that solar is a blight on the land that ruins the character of rural communities. Who wants to look at ugly solar panels instead of cute red barns and white silos?

In central California, however, farmers are forced to leave large parts of their farms uncultivated because there is not enough water to grow crops on all the land available. So, when Golden State Clean Energy came knocking and told them they could put that fallow land to productive use, the farmers listened. Who would say no to an increase in income?

According to SFGate, the project could cover 136,000 acres of farmland in the Central Valley with solar, transforming a traditionally agricultural region into a major energy producer over the next few decades.

The Westlands Water District, the utility company that provides water to a huge swath of Fresno and Kings counties, approved the plan recently. When completed, it could become one of the largest solar installations in the world, spanning an area about four times as large as the city of San Francisco.

Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan

The Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan would also create energy storage and electric transmission facilities, allowing the electricity to reach far beyond the center of the state. Meanwhile, local landowners can supplement their farms with another revenue stream, offset water needs, and prevent further subsidence. The solar installation has to be very large to justify the expense of those transmission upgrades.

“We just don’t have the water available to us,” Jeff Fortune, a 45-year farmer, told SFGATE. “So this will allow you to get paid for growing electricity. But in turn, that will filter down so that the grower has a better chance of staying in existence.” He is a board member of the Westlands Water District, which provides water to around 700 California farms, and says the new project is a win-win for everyone.

Another local farmer, Ross Franson, told NPR in an interview, “I think the first time I heard it, at least from my perspective, it was like, yes, we need to do this.” The problem is he and other farmers grow almonds, pistachios, and tomatoes with water pumped from aquifers a thousand feet underground and from a large irrigation canal that the federal government built to bring in water from northern California.

But the canal is delivering less water now because of droughts and competing claims on the water, and a new state law has banned over-pumping from the aquifer. That means the farmers have been leaving a quarter or more of their land unplanted every year. “We’re farmers and we would rather farm the ground. If we had the water to do it, we would farm it. But the reality is we don’t, and you have to deal with the cards we’re dealt.”

Everyone Benefits

Even the growers who don’t participate in the program will benefit, he said, because if the district makes more money, it can potentially charge its growers less. Furthermore, with more electricity generated, the utility bills local farmers pay could go down. Finally, the tax base for Fresno County will increase, putting more money into local coffers and helping to mitigate tax increases on the land.

Most importantly, farmers will get to stay in business. “The farm economy’s tough right now. Business is tough. And this will allow you another revenue source besides your crop income,” Fortune said.

Project owners bill this as a huge boon to California, helping it reach its aggressive clean energy requirements. Golden State Clean Energy, a partner in the project, estimated that once it is completed, California could meet one sixth of its energy needs in 2035 from solar panels in the Central Valley.

20 GW Of Clean Renewable Energy

NPR correspondent Dan Charles wrote the completed installation will be more than 30 miles long and cover 200 square miles. On a sunny day at noon, it will produce 20 GW of electricity, or as much as a dozen large thermal generating stations that burn coal or methane. Large BESS systems will store some of that power until it is needed after the sun sets.

Skeptics are concerned about the impacts of air pollution, noise, habitat disruption, and an increase in traffic as the project comes online. Some complain that glare from the panels could be a problem and that panels themselves will be an eyesore.

Project leaders claim the community will benefit from new economic opportunities. Approximately 3,000 workers will be needed over the next 10 years to construct the solar farm, and when the project is complete, 500 permanent jobs will be created, according to Golden State Clean Energy.

Westlands Water District general manager Allison Febbo has dubbed the program a “survival plan,” given the uncertainty of the water supply in the region. He said around 200,000 acres of land have typically been left fallow every year, so the solar installation could grow even larger over time. In addition, if new sources of irrigation become available, the land can be returned to agricultural use in the future.

Uniquely Situated

Fortune said they are in a unique situation to be able to execute a program like this successfully, as they are geographically in the center of the state. “We’re located in just the perfect spot,” he said. Being able to send electricity to all corners of California is crucial amid the artificial intelligence boom, he said, when the state needs a larger power supply.

“Electric power’s in short supply. And our project is board-ready, shovel-ready, and we could be online quicker than you could license a new gas-powered plant or build a nuclear plant. We’re ready to roll,” Fortune added.

Caity Peterson of the Public Policy Institute of California told NPR other farming communities in California may try to imitate what Westlands is doing because they, too, will have to stop pumping so much water from the ground. “There’s going to be some kind of rightsizing of agricultural land in the San Joaquin Valley,” she said. According to Peterson, farmers will have to stop growing crops on at least half a million acres or more, so there will be a lot of dry, sunny land just waiting for a solar developer.

Part of the issue is the long running dispute over water rights to the Colorado River, which irrigates millions of acres all across the Southwest. Without water, crops cannot grow, but the land can still be productive for farmers if it becomes part of a solar installation.