Earlier this month, Lightsource BP bought 90.9 acres of undeveloped land in Rio Linda for part of “Wildflower Solar I”, a 16-megawatt development to deliver electricity for SMUD’s SolarShares program. Lightsource BP, one of the world’s largest owner-operators of solar energy assets, announced today a new collaboration with Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
The power purchase agreement will bring locally-generated solar photovoltaic power to the utilities’ customers over 20+ years.
According to the Sacramento Business Journal, The vacant land was once used for cattle grazing. The seller is the Bernik Family Trust.
This is the same property that Florida Power and Light wanted to place a 560 megawatt power plant on in 2002, near the corner of West 6th and U Streets. in 2010, the four parcels that make up this property were approved by the county for a 10-megawatt solar farm, but the developer of the project never moved forward.
The property is crossed in several directions by high-power electric transmission wires. Nearby is a large electrical station of the Western Area Power Administration, a federal agency that operates and maintains federal electrical transmission systems in the West. The property is also near major SMUD and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. transmission lines, which made it attractive to Lightsource BP, according to the Sacramento Business Journal.
