Marin Clean Energy will lease land from Chevron for solar power project
By Richard Halstead

rhalstead@marinij.com @HalsteadRichard on Twitter
Posted:   09/05/2014 03:47:49 PM PDT1 Comment
Marin Clean Energy's board of directors has approved a plan to lease land from Chevron for the creation of a large solar power project in Richmond.
The board Thursday also approved the purchase of electricity from a wind farm in Kern County that will reduce Marin Clean Energy's need to purchase unbundled renewable energy credits. And the board gave the green light for analysis to begin to determine if the city of El Cerrito should be allowed to join Marin Clean Energy's joint powers authority.
Chevron has agreed to lease Marin Clean Energy a 60-acre brownfield site for 25 years — with one five-year extension option — at a cost of just $1 per year. The property is the site of a former fertilizer plant's product ponds and a waste management landfill site.
"Chevron is very interested in doing this because of the community benefits it results in; they like the idea of using this land for a solar installation," said Dawn Weisz, the authority's executive officer.
Chevron spokeswoman Melissa Ritchie said, "We are pleased to partner with MCE in their effort to provide increased renewable energy sources to their customers. Chevron's involvement aligns with our commitment to find innovative approaches to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in communities where we operate."
In addition to reducing greenhouse gases, construction of the solar project will help with local job production.
"There is a provision in the lease that we must hire at least 50 percent of the workers for the project from the local community," Weisz said.
Marin Clean Energy is also in negotiations with the city of Richmond to locate a solar project at the Port of Richmond.
"We expect to have solar installations at both locations," Weisz said. "The Chevron site will allow for us to do multiple phases."
Weisz said it is likely that Marin Clean Energy will initially build 2-megawatt projects at both sites and then expand the Chevron site installation in phases over time up to about 12 megawatts.
Money to cover the pre-development costs for the solar projects is coming from Marin Clean Energy's local renewable development fund. Beginning in 2013, Marin Clean Energy began putting half of the revenue from its "Deep Green" program into this fund, with the goal of creating 14 megawatts of new solar capacity within its jurisdiction by 2019.
Marin Clean Energy's Deep Green subscribers pay a little more than other customers to ensure that all of their electricity comes from non-polluting, renewable sources.
In the past, Marin Clean Energy's critics have chided it for using unbundled renewable energy credits. RECs are tradable commodities that certify that one megawatt-hour of electricity has been generated from an eligible renewable energy resource. RECs can be bundled with the power they represent or unbundled and sold separately from that power. Critics of unbundled RECs question whether their purchase actually results in the creation of new energy production.
The more power that Marin Clean Energy generates through its own projects the fewer RECs it will need to purchase to meet its goals.
On Thursday night, Marin Clean Energy's board approved an energy purchase that will further reduce the number of unbundled RECs that Marin Clean Energy will need to buy. The deal calls for the purchase of 810,000 megawatt hours of electricity, to be delivered from 2015 through 2018, from EDP Renewables North America. The energy will come from Rising Tree wind farm, a 100-megawatt facility under construction in eastern Kern County.
Marin Clean Energy's need for renewable power continues to grow along with its membership. On Thursday, the authority's board approved a study to determine whether the city of El Cerrito, with a population of 24,000, should be allowed to join.
The Marin Clean Energy joint power authority has so far expanded its jurisdiction to include all of Marin, the county of Napa, and the cities of Richmond and San Pablo. It is also considering whether to add the city of Benicia.