California produces more renewable energy than any other state in the United States. Renewable energy has more than tripled in the state since 2005. In 2018, California ranked first in the United States as a producer of electricity from solar, geothermal, and biomass resources.
As of 2020, data from the California Energy commission showed that over half of the electricity (59%) produced in California was from renewable sources. Known as the “Golden State“ with high sun exposure, solar is an especially attractive energy source in California.
1) CIM Group (Los Angeles, California)
CIM Group was launched in 1994 as a real estate and infrastructure management and development firm for Southern California neighborhoods. Today, the firm has more than 1,000 employees and owns and operates more than $31BN of assets. Through the infrastructure platform the firm invests in renewable energy projects. The firm has announced in October 2021 the completion of a 125MW solar park in California.
2) Recurrent Energy (Guelph, Canada)
Recurrent Energy is a leading utility-scale solar and energy storage project developer in North America. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc. and functions as Canadian Solar’s project development arm in Canada and the United States.
With a portfolio of over 7 GW of solar and battery storage projects under development and 2 GW already operating, Recurrent Energy can be considered a very important developer in the renewable energy market. In Kings County in California, the company developed the Slate solar plus energy storage project with 300 MWac solar capacity as well as the Mustang Solar project with a capacity of 100 MWac.
3) BayWa Renewables (Munich, Germany)
The German company BayWa Renewables offers sustainable solutions for green energy self-supply. It has projects in 29 countries with revenues of almost 4.6 billion euros and is considered a leading global energy developer. It has installed approximately 2000MW of wind energy, 2000MWp of solar capacity as well as 82MW in hybrid solar around the world.
In California, Bay Wa RE is developing the Jacumba Valley Ranch (JVR) Energy Park in San Diego County. The 90MW solar plus 70MW storage plant is expected to be fully operational in the first quarter of 2023. The power plant will generate enough electricity to power at least 52,000 households annually.
Image source: Moritz Kindler via Unsplash (28.06.2022)
