La Paz County Centennial Flats solar project secures $1.24 billion financing

Multiple project and developer pages updated in the last week show fresh commercial milestones for Centennial Flats, where Copia Power has closed $1.24 billion in financing for a 500 MW solar-plus-storage installation in La Paz County. Proximo reported the financing and described the project as including 500 MW of solar capacity and 1,069 MWh of battery energy storage capacity.

The site sits at coordinates 33.5718125, -113.5171875 and is listed by Eolus as a 500 MW solar project with a 267 MW battery and annual electricity production of 1 TWh. Eolus states it sold the project in 2022 to a United States-based portfolio company backed by a large publicly traded global private equity investment firm, and that the owner decided to start construction in Q4 2024, triggering a milestone payment of USD 64.7 million to Eolus.

Battery sizing and equipment descriptions vary by source. Eolus lists a 267 MW battery; Proximo cites 1,069 MWh of BESS energy capacity; W. Bradley Electric, LLC reports it has “completed the full installation of a utility-scale Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) at Centennial Flats, located within a massive solar farm spanning 3,400 acres.” WBE specifies the BESS occupies four acres, cites installation of twelve 34.5kV, 900A circuits, primary 34.5kV terminations to eighty-one 4,400kV transformers, secondary terminations to 318 Megapack XL units, and pulling 80,000 feet of medium voltage cable and 120,000 feet of 1000 MCM cable, with cold commissioning, energization, and hot commissioning support.

Timeline targets differ across developer and data pages. Copia’s project page states “the project will employ an average of 300 workers per day while in construction and is anticipated to begin operation in 2025.” Eolus ties a remaining USD 6.9 million payment to commercial operation start “which is planned for 2026.” Cleanview lists an expected commercial operation of April 2026. The differing dates mean the target commercial operation date is unclear across sources.

Local economic and environmental impacts are quantified on the Copia/Upstream HC-1 LLC page. Copia estimates peak construction employment near 600 people, total investment “over $1.2 Billion,” and about $56 million in additional tax revenue to La Paz County over the project lifetime. The page also states the project will “offset 1 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, equal to planting over 17 million trees or removing 230,000 cars from the road for a year.” Copia describes transmission plans as “Clean, renewable electricity generated by the power plant will be transmitted via a 500 kV transmission line to the nearby Cielo Azul substation, operated by DCR Transmission, LLC (DCRT).”

Regulatory records on the project page list a CEC application identifier L-21229A-23-0050-00217 and note a CEC hearing on March 27, 2023 with livestream and public comment instructions. Cleanview additionally lists the project as part of the CAISO interconnection queue and shows the balancing authority as CISO.

Key verifications remain outstanding: confirm whether the $1.24 billion financing closed for all three phases reportedly under construction, whether WBE’s claimed BESS installation corresponds to the full 1,069 MWh system or a phase, and whether the developer’s 2025 operation target is current. Copia contact details listed on the project page are centennialflats@copiapower.com, Attention Nate Lapierre, 600 A Avenue, Lake Oswego, Oregon 97034. If the financing and construction schedules hold, Centennial Flats will reshape local jobs, the county tax base, and regional grid capacity when it comes online in 2025-2026.