Glendale to Purchase Solar And Battery Energy Storage

Reneweable Solar Energy (Photo – J. Brian Garmon)

The Glendale City Council confirmed its commitment to a future of low carbon use.

By Garrett Rowlan

The Council approved a 25-year agreement with Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA), for a 12.5% share of the renewable solar energy, battery energy storage products, and associated environmental attributes of the Eland 1 Solar and Storage Center being built in Kern County. SCPPA is a joint powers authority consisting of 10 municipal utilities, including Glendale, and one irrigation district. The City of Los Angeles is part of the joint energy investment with Glendale through SCPPA, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will manage the development process with 8minute Solar Energy.

“Glendale is proud to be part of the largest solar storage project in the United States,” said Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian. Glendale will receive about 25 MW of renewable solar energy and up to 50 MWh of battery storage from the project.

The Glendale Environmental Coalition (GEC) cheered the deal as a “good example of positive collaboration between the City of Los Angeles and Glendale.

This is the full statement sent to ColoradoBoulevard.net by the GEC:

The Glendale Environmental Coalition is absolutely thrilled that the City of Glendale has a share in the Eland Project. We consider this a positive step in the right direction and an example of exactly the kind of solar paired with storage combo that it will take to produce reliable electricity in lieu of fossil fuels.

We are proud that Glendale is part of a project that supports union jobs, is extremely cost effective, and increases the amount of solar energy used to power our city. We are heartened by the positive collaboration between the City of Los Angeles and the City of Glendale and commend our city leaders for working together towards our mutually shared and mutually challenging goals. This is the type of collaboration it is going to take for all of us to meet the 100% carbon-free by 2045 goals of California’s state mandates.

While this is definitely a terrific project, and one that GEC members have been championing for several months with advocacy at LADWP meetings that led up to the green light on the project, we ALSO look forward to seeing much needed LOCAL development, and soon. It is imperative that we press forward with creating resilient, localized micro-grids, by adding solar paired with battery storage on existing rooftops, covered reservoirs, large parking lot carports etc. – on both public and private sites throughout our city. We look forward to promised updates on these clean energy projects in the near future from GWP.