AES buys 2-GW solar-plus-storage project in California from Avantus

• United States power business AES Corp (NYSE: AES) on Wednesday claimed it has acquired the biggest permitted solar-plus-storage project in the US, the 2-GW Bellefield plan, in Kern County, California, from its developer, Avantus.

The late-stage growth project has two phases, each including 500 MW of solar and as much as 500 MW of four-hour period battery energy storage space. They are expected to become functional in 2025 and also 2026, respectively.

The initial phase has a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to provide hourly, clean power to an existing AES corporate consumer, the company claimed. It expects to acquire the 2nd phase capacity by the end of 2023.

"With the addition of Bellefield phase one, our signed PPA backlog grows to greater than 12 GW, which stands for development of more than 80% from our existing mounted renewable generation fleet," AES head of state as well as president Andres Gluski mentioned. The majority of this backlog is anticipated to find online over the following 2 years, he added.

AES has been ranked by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) as the top designer for authorizing business PPAs in 2021 and 2022.