Kern County Approves 1,400 MW Discovery Solar and 8 GWh Storage Project Despite Split Vote

Discovery Solar Storage, LLC's 7,700-acre project secures a massive $758.5 million tax package while responding to intense coordination from labor unions and regional trade councils.

The Kern County Board of Supervisors has officially approved the sweeping land use entitlements required for the construction and operation of the Discovery Solar PV and Storage Project. In a 3-1 vote during the June 16, 2026 regular meeting, the Board greenlit the massive 7,700-acre development over a dissenting vote from Chairman Peters and amidst the absence of Supervisor Perez. The decision codifies a series of sweeping zoning reclassifications, general plan circulation amendments, and a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that binds the project developer, Discovery Solar Storage, LLC (a subsidiary of Terra-Gen, LLC), to full local regulatory oversight.

Key Details

• Project Scale & Capacity: 1,400 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic solar generation paired with an 8 gigawatt-hour (GWh) battery energy storage system (BESS).
• Official Board Action: Confirmed certification of the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR), adoption of CEQA Findings of Fact and Overriding Considerations, approval of localized Zone Variances, and authorization of Board Agreement 304-2026 (MOU).
• The Decisive Vote: Passed 3-1 via a Parlier-Couch motion (Supervisors Parlier, Couch, and Flores voting Aye; Chairman Peters voting No; Supervisor Perez Absent).
• Project Footprint: Approximately 7,700 acres across 473 privately owned parcels in southeastern Kern County, explicitly straddling Tehachapi Willow Springs Road near Mojave and Rosamond.
• Fiscal Structure: Projected to deliver $758.5 million in property taxes over 35 years following the expiration of California’s solar tax exemption, including $37.3 million into the County General Fund and $122.4 million to Kern County Schools within its first five years.

Why It Matters

The successful entitling of the Discovery Solar project highlights a powerful coalition driving utility-scale clean energy forward: local government looking for fiscal stabilization and organized labor hunting for high-volume employment pipelines. The public hearing drew substantial, explicit backing from major regional labor entities. Representatives from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 428, the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 220, the Ironworkers Local 155, and the Kern, Inyo, and Mono Counties Building and Construction Trades Council all testified in favor of the development. This united front successfully framed the 7,700-acre build as an economic necessity capable of delivering a daily average of 470 local construction jobs.

However, the split 3-1 vote and Chairman Peters' outright opposition signal that tracking municipal sentiment requires looking past surface-level approvals. While the county is eager to step into its role as a top-tier solar taxpayer, local leadership remains split on the friction generated by changing large swathes of land from agricultural and estate designations into industrial energy fields. For infrastructure selectors and compliance teams, the standard framework established here—such as the layout of an extensive 230-kV shared gen-tie transmission corridor with the neighboring Galaxy Solar project—shows how developers can mitigate cumulative environmental pushback by consolidating their infrastructure footprints.

What to Watch

The immediate pivot point to watch following this approval is a legislative tracking issue. Upon passing the entitlements, Supervisor Parlier explicitly directed county staff to bring back an item for formal board discussion regarding solar tax exclusions. This move comes as the state navigates the upcoming January 1, 2027 expiration of legacy solar tax relief. If state-level adjustments or exclusions are ultimately applied to the site, the developer’s financial structure will pivot to a pre-negotiated Cumulative Impact Charge (CIC) requiring an annual flat contribution of $4.27 million over the project's operational lifespan. Furthermore, compliance teams must track the final issuance of Incidental Take Permits from the CDFW regarding the site's 106,100 impacted live Western Joshua Trees.

The Obedio Advantage

Major infrastructure plays don't happen overnight—they leave a trail of structural signals in municipal records months before ground is ever broken. Obedio’s data engine scans, extracts, and parses county board proceedings, zoning changes, and circulation amendments as they happen. This gives land developers, energy firms, and site selectors the early market intelligence needed to map grid capacity and secure regional positioning ahead of the competition.