State will move water with the sun

At the bottom of the San Joaquin Valley, a low-slung Mid-century building tucked into the green-gold hillside is the beating heart of California's impressive water delivery system.

- BY HAYLEY SMITH

ERIC THAYER Los Angeles Times ROWS OF SOLAR PANELS at the Pastoria facilities in Kern County, Calif.

For more than five decades, the Edmonston Pumping Plant has lifted water nearly 2,000 feet up the towering Tehachapi Mountains, connecting water from Northern California to 27 million people in the southern part of the state.

The plant houses 14 rumbling pumps in two football-field-sized wings and is one of the most powerful water lifting systems in the world. But it can need more than 800 megawatts of electricity to run, making it among the largest single power users in the state.

Now the equation is changing. On a recent weekday morning, dozens of state officials and energy industry representatives gathered at Tejon Ranch, just across the road from Edmonston, to celebrate a sparkling new solar plant that will help power the pumps. The 105-megawatt Pastoria Solar Project from Calpine, part of Constellation Energy Corp., represents the largest renewable energy project contracted by the California Department of Water Resources and is a major step in its plan to fully decarbonize operations by 2035, consistent with state law.

“Most Californians — the equivalent of 1 in 12 Americans — get water from the State Water Project,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources. “To make that system carbon neutral by 2035, we need efforts like the Pastoria Solar Project.

When we achieve our clean energy goal while continuing to deliver water supplies without interruption, we'll set a standard for other public agencies across America.

The pumping plant draws its power from California’s main electric grid, and that will continue. But the water department has signed a contract to take the solar power produced by the plant, a common and recognized way for agencies and companies to clean up their electricity supply.