A Kern County agricultural water district is putting some of its recharge basins to double duty: Sinking water and producing solar power.
North Kern Water Storage District partnered with Fresno-based White Pine Renewables to build solar panels directly in more than 57 acres of its existing recharge basins along Zerker Road north of 7th Standard Road.
The 14,444 panels can produce 10 megawatts a year, enough to supply 2,000 homes. But this power will go to North Kern, not the general grid.
The project, which recently went live, is expected to cut North Kern’s electric bill by more than half.
That could be a huge savings in dry years when the district needs to run its pumps so farmers can irrigate. Electric costs can vary from $1 million in wet years, to $25 million in dry years, according to General Manager Dave Hampton.
North Kern is already starting another similarly-sized solar/recharge project a few miles away.
White Pine has completed solar projects for other Kern County water districts, but not within recharge basins. It has put solar in recharge basins in the James Irrigation District in Fresno County, said White Pine CEO and co-founder Evan Riley.
Though North Kern’s recharge basins have been dry, Riley said James has put water on its basins with solar installed and not had problems.
The panels are set higher and further apart to allow water districts to get tractors and other equipment into the recharge basins as needed for maintenance, Riley said.
The Arvin-Edison Water Storage District board recently approved a 10-megawatt project with White Pine to install solar in several of its spreading basins, according to General Manager Jeevan Muhar.
“We did it for several reasons. Yes, the cost of energy, but we’re also under a state mandate to increase the amount of our renewable energy so that we’re 100% renewable in the future. This solves both of those issues,” Muhar said.
White Pine pays all the construction costs, which Riley said was between $10 million and $20 million for the North Kern project. It then sells the power to the water districts at a significantly lower rate than they can get from utility companies.
Water districts typically pay about 23 cents per kilowatt hour from utilities, said Dave Ansolabehere, General Manager of Cawelo Water District, which has a 3.5 megawatt solar facility built by White Pine.
Muhar said Arvin-Edison will be paying White Pine 7 cents per kilowatt hour.
Considering utility rates are expected to go up, doubling up solar in recharge basins “makes a lot of sense,” Muhar said.
