Wholesale solar power sales jump in 2020 due to increased installations

US wholesale solar power sales in 2020 increased 25% compared with 2019, reflecting the increase of solar generation that was installed during the year, according to data reported to government agencies including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and compiled by S&P Global Platts.

The wholesale sales of power from solar facilities totaled just under 60 million MWh in 2020 compared to about 48 million MWh in 2019. According to the data, sales just in Q4 2020 were up 30.5% year on year to 12.3 million MWh from 9.4 million MWh in Q4 2019.

New utility-scale solar installations across the country in 2020 totaled nearly 12 GW, according to the Energy Information Administration. The EIA has estimated that 15.4 GW of new solar capacity could be installed in 2021.

Much of the power generated by large utility-scale facilities, even many with power purchase agreements with off-takers, are sold at wholesale. Utilities with solar facilities sell their power to retail customers. It is estimated that 85% of all solar power is sold as wholesale power.

Solar generators operating in the California Independent System Operator market reported wholesale sales in Q4 of 4.5 million MWh, an increase of 13.4% over Q4 2019 sales.

Of the top 20 generating facilities ranked by total MWh sales in Q4, 11 were operating in Cal-ISO. Two of the 11 facilities -- the 550-MW Topaz facility and the 310-MW Solar Star California XIX facilities, both owned by BHE Renewables -- on a combined basis were responsible for about 10% of total MWh sales in Cal-ISO.

Six of the top twenty solar generating facilities were located in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council market, with the largest facility being BHE's 290-MW Agua Caliente facility in Arizona.

Wholesale solar sales in WECC increased 18.4% in Q4 to a total of 3.4 million MWh, making it the second largest wholesale solar power market behind Cal-ISO.

Three ISOs saw wholesale sales in Q4 double, while one saw sales more than triple.

Wholesale power sales in in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas market increased over 109% to 1.79 million MWh in Q4 compared to roughly 856,000 MWh sold in Q4 2019. Four of the country's 20 largest solar facilities are located in ERCOT.

Q4 sales from facilities operating in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator market increased 110.7% to 157,000 MWh, according to the data, while, off a smaller base, sales in the ISO New England market increased 138.2% to just over 24,000 MWh.

The biggest increase came in the Florida Reliability Coordinating Council market, which saw a 357.3% increase to 114,921 MWh of sales in Q4. Much of the increase was due to the completion of two new solar facilities in Florida with combined capacity of 149 MW built by NextEra energy Resources.

Biggest sellers

The biggest seller of wholesale solar power in Q4 was NextEra Energy Resources, which saw its sales increase 38.6% to 1.3 million MWh. The company operates over 2,000 MW of "universal-scale" solar energy in the US and Canada.

Southern Power, the merchant arm of Southern Company which says it owns or operates more than 2,395 MW of solar, reported wholesale power sales of just over 1 million MWh in Q4, which was a 1.6% increase over Q4 2019.

Con Edison Clean Energy Business also reported 1 million MWh of wholesale power sales in Q4, with sales rising 4.7%.

The company with one of the biggest jumps in wholesale sales was Duke Commercial Power, whose Q4 2020 sales were up 142% to just over 468,000 MWh sold, according to the data.

The company brought online two, 200 MW solar facilities in ERCOT in July 2020, thus boosting its wholesale power sales.