Los Angeles Powers Up: Bass Inaugurates Major Renewable Energy Hub

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Karen Bass Aug. 5 announced the completion of the Eland Solar-plus-Storage Center project, one of the largest solar and battery energy storage projects in the country. The power that will be generated by both phases of the Eland project – Eland 1 and Eland 2 – will meet seven percent of Los Angeles’s total energy consumption while helping to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Eland can provide enough power to supply more than 266,000 households across Los Angeles.

This project is possible through a collaboration between LADWP and Arevon Energy, Inc., the developer, owner and operator of Eland, to procure the power produced from Eland under a long-term power purchase agreement. On average, the cost of generation and storage is about 4 cents per kilowatt hour.   

In 2019, the Los Angeles City Council approved the two power purchase agreements that paved the way for Eland 1 and Eland 2 to be developed. Since then, LADWP has worked to deliver the Eland project as one of the lowest cost solar and battery storage projects ever built that will deliver low-cost renewable energy to Angelenos for decades to come. 

Phase 1 of Eland was completed and energized in December of last year. Now with Phase 2 completed, the project is forecasted to help L.A. reach 64% clean energy by the end of the year. Over the 25-year term of the contract, the Eland power purchase agreement will save LADWP’s ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

LADWP has over 1,100 megawatts (MW) of utility-scale solar previously installed and Eland is unique in that it is LADWP’s first utility-scale, integrated solar and battery project. Eland’s two large-scale solar facilities will capture a combined 400 megawatts of solar energy and store up to 1,200 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy — all of which can be distributed to customers to meet peak demand in the evening and night-time hours when solar energy is unavailable by discharging solar power after the sun has gone down. Eland is the latest addition to L.A.’s several clean energy sources from the Barren Ridge renewable energy corridor in Mojave, sourcing solar and wind energy and transmitting it to Los Angeles.