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The Edwards Sanborn Solar and Energy Storage project is a massive renewable energy complex that covers 4,600 acres of land in California. It can generate 875 megawatts of solar power and store nearly 3.3 gigawatt-hours of energy in batteries. It can also connect to the grid with a 1.3 gigawatt interconnection capacity.
1.9 million solar panels
This means the project can supply enough clean electricity to power about 238,000 homes and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 320,000 tons annually. The project uses 1.9 million solar panels from First Solar and batteries from LG Chem, Samsung, and BYD. It also required 98 miles of medium voltage wire, 361 miles of direct current wiring, and 120,720 batteries.
The project is partly located on the Edwards Air Force Base in Kern County, California, home to many other large solar projects in the US. It is the largest public-private partnership in the history of the US Department of Defense. Over 1,000 workers participated in the project, which was completed with over a million hours of injury-free labor.
Mortenson, a leading construction and engineering company, built the project. It started in early 2021 and became operational in February 2023. It reached full capacity in January 2024, just before its official inauguration. The project’s impressive scale was captured by the Landsat-9 satellite on January 12, 2024.
The Edwards Sanborn Solar and Energy Storage project is the largest of its kind in the US and the world. It surpasses the previous record holder for the largest energy storage site, the Vistra Moss Landing project, also in California. It also competes with the world’s largest solar farms, such as the Golmud Solar Park in China, with 2.8 gigawatts of installed solar capacity, and the Bhadla Solar Park in India, with 2.7 gigawatts.
Solar power is a key to renewable energy sources
Solar power is a key component of the global transition to renewable energy sources, as it can help reduce the dependence on fossil fuels, the main cause of climate change. However, solar power also faces some challenges, such as the intermittency of sunlight and the environmental impact of solar infrastructure.
Solar power must be stored in batteries to ensure a reliable and continuous electricity supply, especially during peak demand or cloudy days. However, batteries often use rare and precious metals, such as lithium and cobalt, extracted from mines and can harm the environment and nearby communities.
Solar power also requires a lot of land to install the panels and the associated equipment. The Mojave Desert in California has been transformed into a solar hub, with projects like the Riverside East Solar Energy Zone, which covers 60,700 hectares (150,000 acres), or ten times the size of Manhattan. This has caused conflicts with the Native American tribes, who consider the land sacred, and with the wildlife, such as the flat-tailed horned toad and the desert tortoise, endangered by habitat loss.
