Solar-plus-battery energy project in Jacumba gets $416M in funding

Construction of a huge solar and battery facility in the desert community of Jacumba is underway, and the company building what’s been dubbed the JVR Energy Park recently announced it has secured $416 million in funding for the project.

BayWa r.e., a company based in Germany with U.S. headquarters for utility-scale solar, storage and wind development projects in Carlsbad, announced it has closed financing to fund the facility’s construction and long-term operations.

Geoff Fallon, interim CEO and chief operating officer at BayWa r.e. Americas, said in a statement that the energy park’s goal is to “deliver a reliable, cost-efficient energy project that adds new capacity to the grid and creates lasting value for San Diego County.”

The “r.e.” at the end of BayWa’s name stands for renewable energy.

Funding will come from a construction-to-term loan arrangement led by the French multinational bank Société Générale, plus preferred equity investments from New York-based firms Wafra Inc. and Acadia Infrastructure Capital.

The JVR Energy Park recently broke ground at the site along Old Highway 80 in Jacumba Hot Springs. BayWa expects the project to be operational by autumn 2026.

The facility will include arrays of solar panels that will generate capacity of 90 megawatts of alternate current and 127 megawatts of direct current electricity. Energy storage from batteries will account for 280 megawatt-hours of electricity.

Altogether, BayWa officials say the project will supply electricity to about 57,000 homes.

The company has already signed a 20-year power purchase agreement to have San Diego Community Power take all the megawatts the JVR Energy Park will deliver. San Diego Community Power is a community choice aggregation program that serves 957,000 customer accounts for the cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, La Mesa, Encinitas, Imperial Beach and National City, plus unincorporated areas of San Diego County.

According to earlier filings and reports, the JVR Energy Park’s active area would cover about 600 acres, which would include solar panels, battery storage modules, an on-site substation and a switchyard.

BayWa officials say a fire protection agreement with the San Diego Fire Authority designates five acres of the project’s land for a new Jacumba fire station.

Some residents and small business owners in Jacumba oppose the JVR Energy Park — citing, among their concerns, the facility’s size.

“It turns a rural community that’s connected to nature and the mountains and makes it into an industrial park,” said Jeffrey Osborne, owner and operator of the Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel. “This scale of industrial development doesn’t belong right next to a rural community like this.”

Officials at BayWa say the company has committed $4 million in direct investment to Jacumba Valley and the project “will contribute significant property tax revenue to support local schools, roads and essential public services.”

The company estimates the energy park will avoid 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime and during its construction, more than 350 union construction jobs will be created.