Solar/Wind combo packs a renewable power punch

Renewable energy company Avangrid has installed the final solar modules at its 44 MW Camino Solar project in California, which is being built next to Avangrid�s 189 MW Manzana wind farm.

By Robin Brunet

The Camino Solar Project is not only the tenth solar project for Connecticut-based renewable energy company Avangrid Inc., as well as its first in California. It could be argued that Camino is an example of a smaller project having a huge advantage, energy-generation wise.

That’s because Camino Solar, which will have a capacity of 44 MW, was constructed next to the company’s 189 MW Manzana wind farm, which was built in 2012.

“Camino was a great opportunity to take advantage of existing infrastructure and create energy resiliency at that location,” says Danielle Olson, Project Director/Construction at Avangrid, which is a member of the Iberdrola Group.

Mark Eilers, Senior Director, Business Development in California and the Pacific Northwest at Avangrid, elaborates: “Camino is a bit smaller than we normally build—usually we prefer tackling large projects, but this mix of energy generation maximized the use of the site’s footprint and provides a bit more certainty in combination with wind.”

A Final Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Statement outlines the diverse elements of Camino. The project is located on approximately 383 acres of an 890-acre facility siting area in south-central Kern County, 200 acres of which is public land administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The panels, inverters and racking are all new on Camino, but the solar farm will connect to the existing Manzana Wind project substation—no new substations needed to be built. During the construction phase, circuit breakers, disconnect switches, metering and protection equipment, main step-up transformers, and other electrical equipment will be installed within this substation.

For renewable energy company Avangrid, it was a huge budget and time-savings benefit to be able to take advantage of the existing infrastructure of the Manzana Wind project for the Camino Solar project, in California. The panels, inverters and racking are of course all new on Camino, but the solar farm will connect to the existing Manzana Wind project substation—no new substations were needed. The project also shares Manzana Wind’s O&M building, access roads and gen-tie line to Southern California Edison’s existing Whirlwind substation.

Further, a buried 34.5 kV collector system will connect to the transformers of the array.

The combined energy of the solar field will transfer to the Manzana substation using a new 0.75-mile-long underground 34.5 kV collector line across private lands, with a single riser pole connecting the line to the existing above-ground Manzana transmission line at the interconnection with the substation. The different 34.5 kV circuits will gather at the substation (or switchyard) and will then be sent to the overhead electricity lines leading to a grid interconnection point.

Olson says, “It was a huge budget and time-savings benefit to be able to take advantage of the existing infrastructure.”

This sentiment was echoed in the Land Management report, which stated that the sharing of infrastructure would “thereby reduce the overall project footprint and associated environmental impacts. For example, the project would share Manzana Wind’s O&M building, substation, access roads and gen-tie line to Southern California Edison’s existing Whirlwind substation. Camino Solar would share facilities with the Manzana Project under an already approved private shared use agreement.”

As for the site itself, the report described it as situated at the southeastern base of the Tehachapi Mountains at the western edge of the Antelope Valley, on lands that gradually slope downward with heights of between 2,720 feet to 3,020 feet above sea level. Several commercial wind projects are also operating north of the Whirlwind Substation.

Camino is close to local services and manpower, since it lies 16 miles northwest of the community of Rosamond, 12 miles south of the city of Tehachapi, and approximately 44 miles southeast of Bakersfield.

Interestingly, alternative energy projects had been considered and rejected by Kern County, including wind power, which the report pointed out  “would not decrease short-term construction-related air emissions. Wind turbines would also have the potential to affect avian species in the local area. It would require 15 to 20 wind turbines to produce an equivalent 44 MW of power that the project would produce, therefore this alternative would require more space than what the project site current accommodates.”

Commercial and industrial rooftop solar was also rejected, “because energy generated under this alternative would be used on-site, it would not meet the project’s objectives of connecting to the regional grid, or contributing to California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard goals.”

The 189 megawatt Manzana wind power project, which is adjacent to the newly-built 44 MW Camino Solar project, includes some pretty impressive energy hardware of its own: some 126 GE 1.5 MW turbines on 65 meter towers. The majority of the project’s output is under long-term contract to San Diego Gas & Electric, and the City of Santa Clara’s Silicon Valley Power.

Eilers says, “Kern County officials were enthusiastic for us to in-fill the site with our solar project, and working with them was smooth and productive. And since we had already established relationships with the regional land owners during the development of our wind farm a decade prior, this too benefited our project development.”

Danielle Olson came on board in mid-2023 and presided over project delivery and execution, while Cupertino Electric Inc. focused on the construction elements leading up to energization. “Grading work was minimal, just cut and fill and only a few rock issues, but nothing that impeded our schedule,” she says.

Avangrid policy prevents the disclosure of module and racking supplier names as well as other branding, but Olson says, “We tend to use bi-facial panels with single-axis tracking on our solar projects in order to optimize light gathering, and Camino was no exception, even though single-face panels are common in smaller projects.”

Cupertino’s construction team of over 200 people at peak drove approximately 63,000 steel piles to create the foundations beginning in spring, 2024 and finished the task that summer; racking and panel installation followed. “The biggest challenge was the hot weather and a significant amount of wind, so there were two workers per module to install and provide additional breaks and sun protection,” says Olson.

Installation was completed in October, and Chris Martin, Vice President of Operations, Energy, for Cupertino Electric, Inc., told media, “we’ve built more than 40 renewable energy projects in Kern County, and we’re honored to be involved with Avangrid’s inaugural project in the area.”

As of December 2024, Avangrid continued to work on other parts of the project, including the collector systems, electrical wiring, and commissioning prior to production on the grid expected in 2025. When operational, Camino’s energy generation capacity will be enough to power the equivalent of about 14,000 average homes and is expected to generate about $15 million in state and local taxes during its lifetime.  

“Often it can be a slow and challenging process to obtain all the agreements necessary to create a commercial solar farm of any size,” says Eilers, “but Camino benefitted from a great working relationship all around. As for the resiliency of energy that Camino and Manzana provides, I think we’ll see more combination solar and wind farms being built across the U.S. in the future.”

Q1 2025