Edwards & Sanborn

History

2024: Storage starts

In late January 2024, Terra-Gen announced the commissioning of the largest solar storage facility in the United States. Located in Kern County, California, Edwards & Sanborn combines approximately 1.9 million photovoltaic panels and 120,720 batteries.

The Edwards & Sanborn complex covers an area of nearly 1,890 hectares in the Mojave Desert. The system is deployed on both private land and land owned by Edwards Air Force Base. Mortenson, the contractor for the project, says it is the largest public-private partnership the U.S. Air Force has ever taken part in. In total, more than 1,000 workers contributed to the initiative.

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Terra-Gen

The photovoltaic modules for the project were supplied by the American company First Solar, and the battery packs were produced at LG Chem, Samsung and BYD. Approximately 640 km of cables were required to connect all components to each other. Edwards & Sanborn's system generates 875 MW of solar power and has 3,287 MVt·ch storage capacity with a total interconnect capacity of 1,300 MW. Power is supplied including to the City of San Jose, utilities Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric, Clean Power Alliance and the Starbucks coffee chain. The system provides the region with clean and sustainable electricity.

Now that the facility is fully operational, it will help transform the energy system and ensure the sustainability of the electrical grid. Mortenson was given an extremely difficult task to implement this project, and they successfully coped with the work, "says Brian Gorda, vice president of design at Terra-Gen.[1]

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