Primergy has signed San Diego Community Power up for the entire output of Purple Sage, a 400 MW solar plant with a 1.6 GWh battery in southern Nevada. When it was announced, it was the largest contract in Leap's record of the San Diego buyer's deals. Two months later, another one passed it. And of all the contracts San Diego Community Power has signed, this is the only one that leaves out how long it lasts.
Key takeaways
- Primergy Solar signed a PPA with San Diego Community Power (SDCP), announced on 21 March 2024, under which SDCP will offtake the full capacity of the 400 MWac Purple Sage Energy Center, a solar project paired with a 1.6 GWh battery energy storage system.
- The Purple Sage Energy Center is located in Nevada near the California border and is expected to generate over 1.2 million MWh of solar energy a year, with deliveries to SDCP under a long-term agreement starting in 2027.
- Enerdatics records 18 PPAs signed by San Diego Community Power totalling 2,396 MW, and Primergy's 400 MW Purple Sage contract is the second largest after SB Energy's 440 MW Pelicans Jaw solar and storage contract signed in May 2024.
- Purple Sage is the only one of San Diego Community Power's 18 recorded PPAs without a disclosed duration; the other 17 run between 12 and 20 years.
- The Purple Sage Energy Center is expected to contribute about $90 million in local tax payments over its lifetime in Clark County, Nevada.
Who is San Diego Community Power?
It is a community choice aggregator, a local public agency that buys electricity on behalf of homes and businesses in its area while the incumbent utility continues to deliver it over the grid. Agencies like SDCP do not usually own power plants. They meet their customers' needs by signing long-term contracts with developers, and that makes them some of the most frequent buyers of new renewable capacity in California.
Leap's record of SDCP's contracting shows the pattern clearly. Its first recorded deals, in 2021, were four contracts for solar and wind. In 2023 it signed six more. In 2024 it signed seven, including Purple Sage, adding 1,394 MW in a single year. That is about 58 percent of everything SDCP has contracted in Leap's records.
How does Purple Sage compare with SDCP's other contracts?
It is one of only two contracts above 300 MW. SDCP's 18 recorded PPAs split into three groups. Nine are solar or solar plus storage, totalling 1,421 MW. Seven are standalone battery contracts, totalling 774 MW. Two are wind, totalling 201 MW.
Purple Sage alone accounts for about 17 percent of the total and more than a quarter of SDCP's solar contracting. Only SB Energy's Pelicans Jaw, at 440 MW and signed in May 2024, is larger.
The timing shows how SDCP buys. Purple Sage came two days after a 200 MW battery contract with Arevon for the Avocet storage facility. On 23 May 2024, SDCP announced four contracts on a single day, Pelicans Jaw and three standalone batteries, together totalling 744 MW. Procurement arrives in rounds rather than one deal at a time.
The missing duration stands out because SDCP is otherwise consistent. Every one of its seven standalone battery contracts runs for 15 years. Its solar contracts run for 15 or 20 years, and its wind contracts for 12 or 15 years. The Purple Sage record says only that the agreement is long-term and starts in 2027.
Why does a Nevada plant serve a San Diego buyer?
Because the site sits close to the California border, and SDCP buys power wherever it can be delivered into the California market. Leap tags the contract to CAISO, the California grid operator, even though the plant itself is in Clark County, Nevada. It is not SDCP's only Nevada contract: it also signed for 35 MW from NextEra's Yellow Pine III solar and battery project in 2023.
The battery is what makes the arrangement work for a buyer that needs power after sunset as well as at midday. A 1.6 GWh battery holds the equivalent of four hours of the plant's 400 MW output. That lets the plant shift solar energy produced at midday into the hours after sunset, when solar output falls and demand stays high.
The project is expected to generate over 1.2 million MWh of solar energy a year, enough to power more than 100,000 homes. Deliveries start in 2027, so the contract was signed about three years before the first power is due.
Enerdatics records 18 PPAs signed by San Diego Community Power since 2021, totalling 2,396 MW. Standalone battery contracts make up seven of them, and all seven run for exactly 15 years. Purple Sage is the second largest of the 18 at 400 MW, and the only one of the 18 for which no duration has been disclosed. No tariff is disclosed on any of them.
What does the deal signal for California's community power buyers?
It shows how far these agencies now reach for supply. SDCP's contracts stretch from southern California to southern Nevada and, through its 150 MW contract with Pattern Energy, to the SunZia wind project in New Mexico. The share of battery capacity in its book also signals how much weight these buyers now put on evening delivery rather than daytime volume.
For Primergy, the contract adds a public buyer to a pipeline that also sells to corporates. The same month, it raised debt for its Ash Creek solar project in Texas on the back of a contract with Microsoft. The question Purple Sage leaves open is the one its record does not answer: how long SDCP has committed to buy the plant's output, and therefore how much of the project's life the contract will finance.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Purple Sage Energy Center? Purple Sage is a 400 MWac solar project with a 1.6 GWh battery energy storage system, located in Nevada near the California border and developed by Primergy Solar. It is expected to generate over 1.2 million MWh of solar energy a year.
When does the Primergy and San Diego Community Power PPA start? San Diego Community Power will take the full output of Purple Sage, including energy and environmental attributes, under a long-term agreement with deliveries starting in 2027. The contract's duration has not been disclosed.
How many PPAs has San Diego Community Power signed? Enerdatics records 18 PPAs signed by San Diego Community Power since 2021, totalling 2,396 MW of solar, wind and battery storage. Purple Sage is the second largest after the 440 MW Pelicans Jaw contract.
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