Proposal Finalized for First Utility-Scale Solar-Wind Hybrid Farm

The first utility-scale solar-wind hybrid farm in the US is ready to go, if it gets approved by the community and the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning – where it just filed its proposal.  

Hybrids that combine the best of solar and wind technologies are a sign that renewable energy is maturing. Last week, we reported  on a small wind turbine/ solar combo that goes on sale this year.

This week, Element Power finalized its proposal for the Wildflower Renewable Energy Farm in California’s Antelope Valley, an area that has some of the strongest, most consistent on-peak winds and sun resources in California. The site is 70 miles north of Los Angeles near transmission lines.

The 250 MW farm would deliver 100 MW of solar and 150 MW of wind, enough to power more than 70,000 California homes.

But the farm would be built on 3700 acres – now used as a horse ranch – and would undoubtedly encounter local opposition.

Element wisely proposes to build on only 840 acres – 22% of the total – leaving the rest of the land for habitat and recreation.

Over the course of a year, Element surveyed the land, studying how wildlife use it, and developed the site to avoid disturbing habitat while maximizing its renewable energy potential.

Based on the topography and wind resources, Element proposes the most intensive development on the northern portion flanked by conservation areas.  It includes 300-foot wide wildlife migration and movement corridors, and a network of hiking and horseback riding trails.

In an effort to disturb as little land as possible, Element kept solar away from the south, because siting huge 1 MW solar arrays would require extensive grading of land. Instead, it put solar completely on the flatter north interspersed with 33 very large 3 MW wind turbines, spread wide apart. 17 more turbines will be in the southern farm.

The design avoids what communities hate: huge areas dense with turbines. Today, much larger turbines can provide more energy with fewer turbines spread out over large areas. For example, there will be just 5 turbines on 500 acres in one section – leaving 1000 acres permanently undeveloped and left for wildlife movement.

In contrast, a wind farm under construction in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont is siting of 21, 450 foot-high wind turbines along a scenic ridgeline, resulting in protests. The wind farm is in wilderness, requiring large amounts of acreage to be destroyed.

The Wildflower project is expected to create over 300 jobs during construction, in an area where the unemployment rate runs as high as 17%.

Private-equity backed Element Power has quietly amassed a nearly 4 gigawatt portfolio of wind and solar assets across 25 US states in the last year, the company says. It’s currently building the 50 MW Macho Springs Wind Farm in New Mexico.