Sources of California in-state electricity generation: 2022 [1] This accounted for 70% of CA's demand in 2022; the remaining 30% was imported. [1]
This is a list of power stations in the U.S. state of California that are used for utility-scale electricity generation. This includes baseload, peaking, and energy storage power stations, but does not include large backup generators. As of 2018 [update] , California had 80 GW of installed generation capacity encompassing more than 1,500 power plants; with 41 GW of natural gas, 26.5 GW of renewable (12 GW solar, 6 GW wind), 12 GW large hydroelectric, and 2.4 GW nuclear. [2] : 1
In 2020, California had a total summer capacity of 78,055 MW through all of its power plants, and a net energy generation of 193,075 GWh. [3] Its electricity production was the third largest in the nation behind Texas and Florida. California ranks first in the nation as a producer of solar, geothermal, and biomass resources. [4] Utility-scale solar photovoltaic and thermal sources together generated 17% of electricity in 2021. Small-scale solar including customer-owned PV panels delivered an additional net 19,828 GWh to California's electrical grid, equal to about half the generation by the state's utility-scale facilities. [5]
The Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County is the largest power station in California with a nameplate capacity of 2,256 MW and an annual generation of 18,214 GWh in 2018. [6] The largest under construction is the Westlands Solar Park in Kings County, which will generate 2,000 MW when completed in 2025. [7] [8]
The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) oversees the operation of its member utilities.
This is a list of operational battery storage power stations in California with a nameplate capacity of at least 10 megawatts.
This is a list of operational biomass and biogas power stations in California with a nameplate capacity of at least 10 megawatts.
The Argus Cogeneration Plant in San Bernardino County is the only coal-fired power station still operating within the state of California. The Intermountain Power Plant (which is 75% owned by LADWP along with five other Los Angeles area cities) in the state of Utah supplied 20% of the electricity consumed by Los Angeles residents in 2017. [57]
Name | Location | Coordinates | Capacity (MW) | Owner | Type | Year | Ref | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Argus Cogeneration Plant | Trona | 35°45′54″N117°22′56″W / 35.76500°N 117.38222°W | 63 | Searles Valley Minerals | Coal | 1978 | [58] [59] [60] | |
Intermountain Power Plant | Delta, Utah | 39°30′27″N112°34′49″W / 39.50750°N 112.58028°W | 1,900 | LADWP (50%), other Los Angeles area cities (25%) | Coal | 1986 | [61] | planned replacement of coal with 840 mw of 70% natural gas 30% hydrogen by 2025 100% hydrogen possible |
This is a list of all operational geothermal power stations in California.
Name | Location | Coordinates | Capacity (MW) | Owner | Type | Year | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Coso | Inyo County | 36°01′00″N117°47′51″W / 36.01667°N 117.79750°W | 272.2 | Coso Operating Company | Flash steam | 1987 | [62] [63] |
The Geysers | Sonoma, Lake County | 38°47′26″N122°45′21″W / 38.79056°N 122.75583°W | 1,590 | Calpine, NCPA, SVP, USRG | Dry steam | 1960 | [64] [65] [66] |
Heber | Imperial County | 32°42′52″N115°31′37″W / 32.71444°N 115.52694°W | 161.5 | Ormat | Binary cycle | 1985 | [67] [68] |
Imperial Valley | Imperial County | 33°09′48″N115°37′00″W / 33.16333°N 115.61667°W | 432.3 | CalEnergy, EnergySource | Dry steam | 1982 | [69] [70] |
Mammoth | Mono County | 37°38′44″N118°54′42″W / 37.64556°N 118.91167°W | 40 | Ormat | Binary cycle | 1984 | [71] [72] [73] [74] |
North Brawley | Imperial County | 33°00′52″N115°32′27″W / 33.01444°N 115.54083°W | 64 | Ormat | Binary cycle | 2010 | [75] [76] |
Ormesa | Imperial County | 32°46′59″N115°15′15″W / 32.78306°N 115.25417°W | 101.6 | Ormat | Binary cycle | 1987 | [77] [78] [79] [80] |
Conventional hydroelectric power stations include traditional reservoir and run-of-the-river hydroelectric power stations. The list below includes all conventional hydroelectric power station in the state with a nameplate capacity of at least 50 megawatts.
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity is important means of large-scale grid energy storage that helps improve the daily capacity factor of California's electricity generation system. This is a list of all operational pumped-storage power stations in California.
Name | Location | Coordinates | Capacity (MW) | Owner | Year | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Castaic | Los Angeles County | 34°35′15″N118°39′24″W / 34.58750°N 118.65667°W | 1,500 | CDWR, LADWP | 1973 | [140] |
Helms | Fresno County | 37°02′21″N118°57′49″W / 37.03917°N 118.96361°W | 1,212 | PG&E | 1984 | [141] |
J.S. Eastwood | Fresno County | 37°08′52″N119°15′24″W / 37.14778°N 119.25667°W | 200 | SCE | 1987 | [142] [143] |
Lake Hodges | San Diego County | 33°03′29″N117°07′08″W / 33.05806°N 117.11889°W | 42 | SDCWA | 2012 | [144] |
O'Neill | Merced County | 37°05′55″N121°02′52″W / 37.09861°N 121.04778°W | 25 | USBR | 1967 | [145] |
Thermalito | Thermalito | 39°30′55″N121°37′45″W / 39.51528°N 121.62917°W | 120 | CDWR | 1968 | [146] |
William R. Gianelli | Merced County | 37°04′07″N121°04′48″W / 37.06861°N 121.08000°W | 424 | CDWR, USBR | 1968 | [147] |
This is a list of operational natural gas-fired power stations in California with a nameplate capacity of at least 100 megawatts.
The Diablo Canyon Power Plant has been the only nuclear power station in California since the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 2013. Due to the changing dynamics of electricity generation in California, Diablo Canyon is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2025. [297] [298] The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station (the largest power generator in the United States), which is 27% owned by California power agencies, in the neighboring state of Arizona supplies a significant amount of power to southern California.
Name | Location | Coordinates | Capacity (MW) | Owner | Type | Year | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Diablo Canyon | San Luis Obispo County | 35°12′39″N120°51′22″W / 35.21083°N 120.85611°W | 2,256 | PG&E | PWR | 1985 | [6] |
Palo Verde | Tonopah, Arizona | 3,937 | Southern California Edison, SCPPA, LADWP, and others | PWR | 1986-1988 |
This is a list of operational petroleum-fired power stations in California.
Name | Location | Coordinates | Capacity (MW) | Owner | Fuel | Year | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oakland Power Plant | Oakland | 37°47′48″N122°16′55″W / 37.7968°N 122.2819°W | 165 | Vistra Energy | Jet fuel | 1980s | [299] [300] [301] |
Pebbly Beach Generating Station | Avalon | 33°19′59″N118°18′37″W / 33.33306°N 118.31028°W | 12.7 | SCE | Diesel | [302] | |
List of very large (>100MW) solar photovoltaic power stations in California as of January 1, 2019.
To update and expand this list, search the Energy Information Administration's plant-level data set by visiting the Electricity Data Browser.
Alternatively, view the Solar Industry Association's Major Solar Projects List which is less frequently updated.
This is a list of all operational solar thermal power stations in California.
This is a list of all operational wind farms in California.
This is a list of power stations under construction in California.
Name | Location | Coordinates | AC Capacity (MW) | Type | Completion | Notes | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Big Beau Solar and Storage Project | Kern County | 34°54′24″N118°21′11″W / 34.90667°N 118.35306°W | 128 | Solar farm, Battery storage | 2021 | Includes a 40 MW, 160 MWh of battery storage system. | [347] [348] |
Desert Harvest Solar Project | Riverside County | 33°44′22″N115°24′02″W / 33.73944°N 115.40056°W | 150 | Solar farm | 2020 | [349] | |
Westlands Solar Park | Kings County | 36°10′N119°56′W / 36.167°N 119.933°W | 2,000 | Solar farm | 2025 | Demonstration project completed in June 2016. To be gradually expanded out to 2,000 MW by 2025. | [350] |
Edwards Sanborn | Kern County | 346 | Solar farm, Battery storage | 2022 | Includes 735 MWh of battery storage system. | [351] |
Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) is a concentrated solar power plant in California, United States. With the combined capacity from three separate locations at 354 megawatt (MW), it was for thirty years the world's largest solar thermal energy generating facility, until the commissioning of the even larger Ivanpah facility in 2014. It was also for thirty years the world's largest solar generating facility of any type of technology, until the commissioning of the photovoltaic Topaz Solar Farm in 2014. It consisted of nine solar power plants in California's Mojave Desert, where insolation is among the best available in the United States.
Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC), also known as Mojave Wind Farm, is the third largest onshore wind energy project in the world. The Alta Wind Energy Center is a wind farm located in Tehachapi Pass of the Tehachapi Mountains, in Kern County, California. As of 2022, it is the largest wind farm in the United States, with a combined installed capacity of 1,550 MW (2,080,000 hp). The project, being developed near Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm— site of the first large-scale wind farms installed in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s—is "a powerful illustration of the growing size and scope of modern wind projects".
The Tehachapi Wind Resource Area (TWRA) is a large wind resource area along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and Tehachapi Mountains in California. It is the largest wind resource area in California, encompassing an area of approximately 800 sq mi (2,100 km2) and producing a combined 3,507 MW of renewable electricity between its 5 independent wind farms.
Source: CEC-1304 Power Plant Owners Reporting Form and SB 1305 Reporting Regulations. In-state generation is reported generation from units one megawatt and larger. Data as of June 24, 2019 ... In 2018, total generation for California was 285,488 gigawatt-hours (GWh), ... in-state generation dropped by 6 percent (11,494 GWh) to 194,842 GWh. ... Net imports increased by 6 percent (4,944 GWh) to 90,648 GWh,
As Los Angeles officials celebrated the transition away from natural gas on Tuesday, they mostly glossed over the fact that the city still gets much of its power from an even dirtier fossil fuel: coal. In 2017, 18% of L.A.'s electricity was generated at the Intermountain Power Plant, a coal-burning facility outside Delta, Utah.
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(help)Power plant operator AES Corp. said Monday it had closed on a sale of the land to real estate developer Leo Pustilnikov, in a deal that requires the company to stop operating the gas-burning generators by 2023. ... [As of 2020]: If AES is allowed to keep generating and selling electricity for three more years, the company will transfer $14 million to Pustilnikov for environmental cleanup — compared to just $6.5 million with a two-year extension, and $1.5 million with after a single year. Similarly, Pustilnikov has agreed to preserve up to 25 acres as permanent open space — but only with a three-year extension for AES. With a two-year extension his commitment falls to 12 acres of open space, and with a single year it falls to four acres.
Los Angeles is under state orders to shutter all 10 gas-fired generators at the three plants in the coming years because they use ocean water for cooling, which can harm marine life. DWP officials had said they weren't sure clean technologies like batteries would be cheap or effective enough to replace the gas plants before the state's deadlines, 2024 for Scattergood and 2029 for Harbor and Haynes.
Nuclear Energy in California (CA.gov): http://www.energy.ca.gov/nuclear/california.html Archived March 22, 2019, at the Wayback Machine retrieved: 11/10/12