The California Energy Commission on June 11, 2025, approved the Darden Clean Energy Project, a 2,300-megawatt solar and battery storage installation that will cover roughly 9,500 acres of retired farmland near Cantua Creek in Fresno County. The project is the first to clear a key regulatory milestone under the state’s Opt-In Certification Program, and it signals a broader shift in how Central Valley landowners are rethinking the economic value of water-starved agricultural ground. With the Westlands Water District set to formally act on the project at its own board level, the approval raises hard questions about whether solar leases on marginal cropland represent a lifeline for struggling farm communities or a one-way exit from food production.
What the Darden Project Actually Includes
The Darden Clean Energy Project is not a modest rooftop array. It spans approximately 9,500 acres of retired agricultural land and combines 1,150 MW of solar photovoltaic capacity with up to 4,600 MWh of battery energy storage, according to the project’s CEQAnet Notice of Determination. The installation also includes a 34.5-to-500 kV substation and an approximately 15-mile 500 kV generation tie line that will connect to PG&E’s Los Banos–Midway No. 2 500 kV transmission corridor. That interconnection point matters because it feeds directly into the backbone of California’s high-voltage grid, giving the project the ability to dispatch power across the state rather than serving only local demand.
The California Energy Commission’s review under docket 23-OPT-02 covered the full scope of the project, from panel fields and access roads to the substation and grid tie. The public docket for 23-OPT-02 shows how the Staff Assessment, Draft Environmental Impact Report, and public comment process were consolidated into a single state-led proceeding. The Final Commission Order adopted at the June 11, 2025, business meeting completed the permitting process, and a Notice of Determination has since been filed. That timeline, from application to approval, moved faster than most large-scale energy projects in California, reflecting the state’s effort to accelerate clean energy buildout while still documenting site-specific impacts on air quality, biological resources, cultural resources, and local infrastructure.
Why Retired Farmland Became the Target
The Darden site sits within the Westlands Water District, an irrigation district that has struggled for decades with unreliable federal water deliveries from the Central Valley Project and chronic groundwater overdraft. Much of the land near Cantua Creek was already classified as retired from active farming before the solar proposal arrived, due in part to poor drainage and salinity that made crops difficult to sustain even in wetter years. That distinction is significant. Developers and water district officials can argue, with some justification, that converting fallow ground to energy production does not displace active agriculture, but rather finds a new economic use for acreage that had already slipped out of rotation.
Westlands has been planning for this kind of transition for years. The district maintains an environmental documents repository that includes the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan and the earlier Westlands Solar Park Program EIR, both of which identified large blocks of low-productivity land as candidates for solar development. Those planning documents framed solar as a way to stabilize district finances, reduce reliance on uncertain water supplies, and manage lands with selenium and drainage constraints that complicate traditional farming. In that context, Darden is less an outlier than a logical extension of a strategy to cluster renewable energy projects where they are least likely to conflict with high-value crops, even as it cements a long-term shift away from agriculture on thousands of acres.
How Farmland Conversion Fits a Statewide Pattern
The choice to site Darden on retired ground also reflects a broader statewide pattern of agricultural land conversion. The California Department of Conservation’s Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program reported that solar facility development accounted for more than 17,000 acres of new urban and built-up land between 2016 and 2018, with Imperial, Kern, and other counties seeing especially large footprints. Solar is still a relatively small share of overall farmland loss compared with suburban expansion and other development, but the concentration of projects in sun-rich, water-stressed regions means the impacts are highly localized, especially in the San Joaquin Valley.
To track those changes, the Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program classifies land into categories such as Prime Farmland, Farmland of Statewide Importance, Unique Farmland, and lesser-quality grazing and other lands, and it publishes GIS-based conversion data that planners and researchers use to evaluate long-term trends. In debates over projects like Darden, those classifications are central: if the affected acreage is already downgraded due to salinity, poor soils, or lack of reliable irrigation, the environmental and food security costs of conversion are framed as relatively modest. If, by contrast, high-quality, irrigated ground is taken out of production for solar, critics argue that the state is undermining its own agricultural base. For Westlands, emphasizing that Darden is on retired, drainage-impaired land is a way to position the project as consistent with responsible land stewardship.
The Regulatory Fast Track That Made It Possible
California’s Opt-In Certification Program allows certain large energy projects to bypass the usual patchwork of county-level permits and instead seek a single license from the California Energy Commission. The Darden project was the first development to reach a key milestone under this program, a status the CEC highlighted in February 2025. For developers, the appeal is straightforward: one lead agency, one environmental review, and one consolidated approval timeline. For counties and special districts, the tradeoff is a loss of direct permitting authority over projects that will occupy thousands of acres and shape local economies for decades.
The practical effect is that projects like Darden can move from proposal to approval in a compressed window compared with traditional processes. The CEC’s handling of docket 23-OPT-02 bundled the Staff Assessment, Draft EIR, public workshops, and evidentiary hearings into a single proceeding, with the Commission itself issuing the final decision rather than deferring to county boards or planning commissions. State officials argue that this streamlining is necessary to meet aggressive renewable portfolio standards and to close the gap between planned capacity and the generation needed to maintain reliability during late-summer evenings. Critics, however, worry that concentrating authority in Sacramento weakens local leverage over land use, community benefits, and mitigation measures, especially in rural regions that already feel sidelined in statewide energy planning.
What the Water District Gets Out of It
The Westlands Water District’s board scheduled a meeting on July 15, 2025, with an agenda item to consider adoption of a resolution approving the Darden Clean Energy Project. That agenda references the CEC-certified EIR under docket 23-OPT-02 and signals the district’s formal engagement with the project as both a landowner and a public agency. While the detailed terms of land leases and easements are not laid out in the agenda summary, large-scale solar projects typically provide long-term, fixed payments that can be more predictable than crop revenues tied to volatile water allocations and commodity prices. For a district managing substantial acreage that may never return to profitable farming, those revenues can help offset the costs of drainage management, environmental compliance, and debt service tied to historic water infrastructure.
Beyond direct payments, Westlands gains a clearer framework for managing its retired lands portfolio. By aligning Darden with earlier planning efforts like the Westlands Solar Park and the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan, the district can cluster transmission corridors, access roads, and habitat mitigation areas rather than allowing piecemeal development. That coordinated approach may reduce conflicts with remaining agricultural operations and create opportunities for shared benefits, such as road upgrades or local contracting commitments. At the same time, once land is locked into multi-decade energy leases, it is effectively removed from any future return to cropping, raising the stakes of today’s decisions for future generations of farmers and farmworkers in the district.
A Test Case for the Central Valley’s Energy-Agriculture Balance
For supporters, Darden is a template for how California can meet its clean energy goals while easing pressure on overdrawn aquifers and marginal farmland. Siting a 1,150 MW solar array with substantial battery storage on already retired, drainage-impaired ground appears to align climate policy with water reality, especially in a district where some lands are unlikely to be farmed sustainably again. The project’s connection to a major 500 kV transmission corridor means its output can support grid reliability far beyond Fresno County, reinforcing the argument that the benefits are statewide even if the land-use changes are local.
For skeptics, the project embodies a different concern: that the combination of water scarcity, state-level permitting, and lucrative energy leases will accelerate a one-way transition away from agriculture in parts of the Central Valley. They worry that as more landowners follow Westlands’ lead, the region could see a patchwork of solar fields where orchards and row crops once stood, with fewer year-round jobs and less local control over land-use decisions. The outcome of Westlands’ July 15 vote, and how the district structures its agreements with Darden’s developers, will be closely watched as an early indicator of whether large-scale solar on retired farmland becomes a narrow, carefully managed niche, or the dominant endgame for water-stressed agricultural districts across California.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
