MOJAVE — The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power celebrated the completion of its Eland Solar-plus-Storage Center Project Aug. 5, which is expected to supply power to more than 266,000 households in the city.
During a news conference in Mojave, an unincorporated community in Kern County approximately 84 miles north of Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass hailed the project — one of the largest solar and battery energy projects in the nation. She said the facility will help transition the city to 100% clean energy by 2035.
“In L.A., we have some very ambitious clean energy goals,” Bass said. “We’re targeting 98% clean energy by this decade’s end and 100% by 2035.”
“Today represents a significant milestone in meeting these goals. This is L.A.’s clean energy transition,” Bass added. “This is how we power our city and the world into the future, and this is how we build a greener, more sustainable city to protect Angelenos for generations to come.”
The Eland Solar and Storage Center is located across more than 4,600 acres of desert. Eland’s massive facility includes 1.3 million solar panels and 172 storage batteries.
“The Eland project represents what we need to achieve this objective — scale, energy storage, reliability and innovation — while demonstrating what is possible when public and private sectors partner to benefit our city,” Department of Water and Power CEO Janisse Quinones said. “This project has had the lowest cost for solar and storage, translating to a more affordable bill for our DWP customers,” she added.
The first phase of the project was completed last December. On Aug. 5, officials marked the completion of the second phase. Both projects interconnect with the power grid through the DWP’s Barren Ridge Switching Station to supply 7% of the utility’s energy portfolio.
The full operational Eland facility can provide more than 1,170 megawatts of renewable energy to Los Angeles, according to the DWP. All energy generated from the project will be sold to Southern California Public Power Authority participants, including the DWP.
The project began in 2019 when the Los Angeles City Council approved two power purchase agreements that paved the way for both phases of the project to be produced by Arevon Energy Inc. — the developer, owner and operator of Eland.
Daniel Garcia, executive director of the Southern California Public Power Authority thanked the DWP and the city for their leadership on the project.
“Over my 40 years of experience, to bring a project of this size to the grid is nearly impossible,” Garcia said. “This is almost 800 megawatts of solar, and I think 300 megawatts of battery storage. That is rare in today’s marketplace.”
