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California’s Central Valley is the heart of the state’s ag industry and top U.S. source of fresh produce and nuts. But tighter water supplies are expected to render hundreds of thousands of acres useless in the years ahead. Already, 70,000 acres of former farmland in the San Joaquin Valley west of Fresno have been idled by the local water agency. Yet like the adage about turning lemons into lemonade, a private developer is working with that water agency and farmers to turn underused acreage (some of which probably once grew lemons) into the nation’s biggest solar power project.

Golden State Clean Energy, partnering with Westlands Water District, has an ambitious plan to get up to 21 gigawatts of solar panels and 21 gigawatts of battery storage installed across 136,000 acres of the Central Valley. Completion of the “Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan” will take a decade and its costs may top $50 billion. But it would be the biggest new supply of carbon-free energy by the late 2030s–enough to power more than 10 million homes. Rather than trying to build the entire system itself, Golden State is the project’s architect and developer, acquiring the land and getting state and local approvals. It intends to lease property to multiple companies that will build and operate the future solar farms and energy storage facilities, spread over 212 square miles.

“If I were to name off the 12 largest renewable developers in the United States, we're probably talking to them,” Golden State Chief Operating Officer Patrick Mealoy told Forbes. He declined to say how much the company has raised so far and who its biggest investors are.

“There's a misconception that it’s a single 21,000 megawatt project,” he said. “There's going to be somewhere between 30 and 60 individual projects. And Golden State's not going to be building all of these projects. We're going to build, I don't know, 5%, 10%, 20%. There will be a cap.”

An advantage the project has is that former farmland can be developed faster and with fewer regulatory restrictions than other types of property, though there is some opposition from residents worried that construction will bring years of heavy truck traffic and air pollution. But so far, its environmental review has won support from the water district’s board and Mealoy and his team are working to secure a final 20,000 acres.

The state has mandated that California get 100% of its energy from renewable sources by 2045. It’s only about halfway there so far, and Golden State’s project could get it closer to that target, though the........

© Forbes