New York-based D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments LLC broke ground today on a 50-megawatt solar photovoltaic array that will supply about 1% of the total power need of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
Spanning nearly 400 acres, the Sloughhouse Solar Project was first proposed in the summer of 2021, when D.E. Shaw reached a power-purchase agreement with SMUD for the electricity from the site.
“This is a significant step toward advancing cleaner energy, a healthier environment and grid reliability for future generations in the greater Sacramento area,” said Hy Martin, chief development officer with D.E. Shaw, in a news release. D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments is a subsidiary of New York hedge fund manager D.E. Shaw & Co. LP.
Once built, Sloughhouse Solar will allow current livestock grazing to continue on the property, according to its website.
In January, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Sloughhouse Solar, which is on property that also has an existing 9.4-megawatt solar array on 90 acres that was built out more than a decade ago. The Sloughhouse Solar project is independent of the existing Dillard Recurrent Solar Park array, which is owned by Recurrent Energy, the U.S. arm of solar developer Canadian Solar Inc. (Nasdaq: CSIQ), based in Guelph, Ontario.
Under the Sloughhouse Solar power-purchase agreement, SMUD commits to buying electricity from the project for 27 years at a set rate in return for D.E. Shaw financing and building it. Shaw didn’t respond to requests for the cost of building the array.
D.E. Shaw said the construction will create up to 200 construction jobs and several operations jobs once completed.
Sloughhouse Solar is spread over two parcels that total 795 acres in an agriculturally zoned part of the county. The proposed array would cover about 372 acres of the property, mostly on grazing land, but it would also cover about 160 acres of agricultural farmland, according to the county.
The solar project is at 7794 Dillard Road, which is south of Highway 16, roughly between Rancho Murieta and Wilton.
It's just north of a massive array D.E. Shaw built at Rancho Seco, and it's southwest of the proposed Coyote Creek Agrivoltaic Ranch near Rancho Seco, for which D.E. Shaw is now getting approvals from the county. Coyote Creek is proposed as a 200-megawatt solar ranch with a 400-megawatt-hour battery storage operation on-site. Coyote Creek is on vacant rolling prairie used for sheep grazing. Coyote Creek will be the largest solar array in SMUD’s territory, covering 1,200 acres on a parcel that is over 2,550 acres.
In 2021, SMUD set an ambitious goal of getting to zero-carbon power by 2030. The Sloughhouse Solar Project and others like it are how SMUD plans to reach that goal, which is set 15 years ahead of California’s statewide zero-carbon target of 2045, which is the most advanced in the country.
