Hecate Energy Beacon Solar 3
Solar power plant · Kern County, California
Nameplate capacity
56 MW
Rank in California
#402
of 1,897 plants
In service since
2016
December 2016
Details
- Primary fuel
- Solar
- Technology
- Solar Photovoltaic
- Operator
- AES Distributed Energy
- County
- Kern County
- Generating units
- 1
- Share of state capacity
- 0.05%
- Rank among solar plants in California
- #120 of 937
- EIA plant code
- 59316
Generating units
| Unit | Technology | Nameplate | Summer | Online | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEAC3 | Solar Photovoltaic | 56 MW | 51 MW | 2016 | Operating |
Nameplate is the maximum rated output; summer capacity is what the unit can reliably deliver on a hot day, which is typically lower.
Similarly sized plants in California
| Wellhead Power Panoche | Natural gas | 57 MW |
| Hecate Energy Beacon Solar 1 | Solar | 56 MW |
| Carson Cogeneration | Natural gas | 56 MW |
| Luciana | Solar | 56 MW |
About this data
From EIA’s inventory of operable generators, May 2026 release. Capacity is nameplate — the maximum rated output of the equipment, not what the plant actually generates over a year, which depends on how often it runs. A 56 MW solar plant and a 56 MW nuclear plant have the same entry here and produce very different amounts of electricity.
“In service since” is the earliest in-service date among the units still listed, so a site rebuilt around newer equipment can read as younger than the site itself. All California power plants · What California actually generates