How Many Solar Plants In California

The california energy commission licenses solar thermal plants above 50 megawatts and promotes solar photovoltaic installation through the renewables portfolio standard with building efficiency standards and as a partner in the california solar initiative.

How many solar plants in california. The four existing csp plants with dry cooled systems were the three power plants at the ivanpah solar power facility near barstow california and the genesis solar energy project in riverside county california. Solar energy in california falls into two categories. The complex will reduce carbon dioxide co 2 emissions by more than 400 000 tons per year. Solar power in california includes utility scale solar power plants as well as local distributed generation mostly from rooftop photovoltaics it has been growing rapidly because of high insolation community support declining solar costs and a renewable portfolio standard which requires that 33 of california s electricity come from renewable resources by 2020 and 60 by 2030.

Of 15 csp projects under construction or development in the us as of march 2015 6 planned to use wet systems including one wet. A 377 megawatt net solar complex using mirrors to focus the power of the sun on solar receivers atop power towers. The electricity generated by all three plants is enough to serve more than 140 000 homes in california during the peak hours of the day. In 2019 solar pv and solar thermal power plants produced 28 463 gigawatt hours gwh of energy or 14 2 percent of california s in state generation portfolio.