Collectively they will pump out 6,278 megawatts, enough for more than 6 million households. Power companies have proposed another 15 plants, representing an additional 6,734 megawatts, which are now under review by regulators. In Pittsburg, about 500 builders, electricians, welders and pipe fitters are working until midnight every day on the first major power plant to be built in the Bay Area since 1972. It will be the first major new plant in the state in a decade. Welders huddle in small sheds, their tools glowing behind the tarps that shield them from the steady drizzle.
Several workers scurry by with a pump to fix a flooded area.
The sheer scale of the 12-acre power plant is hard to grasp. A single blade of one of the giant cooling-tower fans is the size of a small airplane's wing. Besides Los Medanos, new plants in Sutter and Kern counties will go online this summer. Along with several smaller, temporary plants, this summer's crop of new electron farms will produce about 1,720 extra megawatts. But that's not even 10 percent of the 20,000 megawatts guzzled by air conditioners during the hot months.