San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and Pattern Energy inked a 20-year contract for 315MW of wind energy to be generated at Pattern’s Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility near Ocotillo, Calif., approximately 25 miles west of El Centro in the Imperial Valley.
If all government approvals are provided on a timely basis, Pattern Energy plans to complete the project by the end of 2012 to coincide with a 2012 in-service date for the 500kV Sunrise Powerlink transmission line, currently under construction.
This project will produce enough renewable wind energy to serve more than 130,000 households a year. This is the fourth renewable contract, totaling 600MW, that SDG&E has signed in the past nine months that will be transmitted across the Sunrise Powerlink. With the addition of this contract with Pattern Energy, half of the 600MW is for wind energy and half is for solar energy in the Imperial Valley. SDG&E has committed to obtaining 33 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2020.