Intersect Power started the commercial operation of its Athos III solar project in Riverside County, California, on December 22, 2022. The Athos III solar project was built by union labor, with American-made solar panels, batteries and steel piles, and it is expected to meet the domestic content and prevailing wage requirements for tax credit incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The Athos III solar project (also known as Blythe Mesa Solar II) generates 224 MWAC/310 MWDC of solar energy, enough to power approximately 94,000 homes, and features 448 MWh of co-located storage.
“Today marks a major milestone for the Intersect Power team and our impact as a clean energy developer, owner and operator,” said Sheldon Kimber, CEO of Intersect Power CEO. “Athos III demonstrates that Intersect continues to pioneer procurement standards for our industry that live up to the vision of the IRA. This project is much more than a significant new source of clean energy for California’s energy system; it’s also a case study in how the clean energy industry can maximize our impact by prioritizing domestic supply chains and union labor to ensure the benefits of the clean energy transition are felt by all Americans.”
The Athos III solar project is part of Intersect Power’s near-term portfolio totaling 2.2 GW of solar PV and 1.4 GWh of co-located storage. The remainder of the portfolio will be operational in 2023. Construction of the Athos III solar project created 500 peak union jobs.
Funding for the project’s construction and operations was secured as part of the broader portfolio financing announced last November, when Intersect Power closed on portfolio-level term debt, tax equity and construction financing commitments from financiers and investors.
News item from Intersect Power
A search on Athos III reveals this project like many others in this same Riverside County solar PV farm is using First Solar, utility scale solar PV panels. Previous large solar PV farms in this particular region of the desert like McCoy solar PV farm also uses earlier series of First Solar panels in that project. It seems the Desert Quartzite project was built and is operated by First Solar. Just sayin’, there’s a whole lot of First Solar going on.