San Diego-based developer Avantus has announced the start of commercial operations at its Aratina 1 project in Kern County, California, with the site’s 200 MW of solar and 500 MWh of energy storage representing phase 1 of the larger Aratina Solar Center project.
The milestone follows a recent announcement from the company that it secured $525 million in funding for phase 2 of the project, which will add 150 MW of solar and 452 MWh of energy storage to the project.
The Aratina 1 project will serve two community choice aggregators (CCAs) under long-term power purchase agreements: Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) and Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE), which cover the full output of the project. Avantus says the project will generate enough clean energy to power 105,000 California homes annually.
The project was backed by more than $500 million in financing from a consortium led by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Truist Securities, ING Capital and Mizuho. Truist Bank also provided a $300 million tax equity commitment. The company says the project created approximately 500 jobs during peak construction.
In late 2025, Avantus announced a 15-year power purchase agreement with Southern California Edison for energy from the Aratina 2 facility. The project is now under construction and expected to be operational by the end of 2026.
The $525 million financing package for the second phase was announced in July 2026 and provided by BBVA, CIBC and Santander. It includes construction funding, a tax equity bridge loan and letters of credit. Avantus says the second phase is creating roughly 300 union construction jobs.
As part of its strategy as an independent power producer (IPP), Avantus plans to maintain an ownership stake in both projects and oversee their operation. The same is true of the company’s upcoming Rexford 2 solar and storage project in Tulare county.
The projects are part of the company’s overall portfolio of developments in its core markets of California, Nevada and Arizona, which it says now includes 13 GW of solar and 44 GWh of storage.
Avantus said it is on track to have 788 MW of solar brought to commercial operation and an additional 800 MW under construction by the end of 2026, with the goal of 5 GW of total solar capacity online by 2030.
Looking at the California market as a whole, SEIA projects the state will add nearly 23 GW of solar capacity over the next five years, driven heavily by large-scale utility solar and storage projects like the Avantus sites, to support the state’s ambitious grid reliability goals.
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