Blacksand Generating Facility

🔥 Natural GasIndustrial Non-CHP8 MW capacity

866th largest plant in California · 6210th nationally

Blacksand Generating Facility is a natural gas power plant in California with a nameplate capacity of 8.0 MW. It generates roughly 45.1k MWh per year — enough to power about 4,294 average U.S. homes.

Its capacity factor of 64% puts it in the middle range — running steadily but not full-time. At 1915 lb CO₂/MWh, its emission rate sits above the national grid average of roughly 800 lb/MWh.

PeakingMid-meritBaseload0%40%80%100%64%
Mid-merit — steady but not full-time
Capacity8 MWnameplate
Annual Generation45.1k MWhEPA eGRID
Capacity Factor64%of theoretical max
Annual CO₂43.2kmetric tons

Location

Plant NameBlacksand Generating Facility
OperatorBridge Energy Llc
CityBrea
CountyOrange County
StateCalifornia
ZIP92821
Coordinates33.93280, -117.85500

This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.

Natural GasHydroelectricSolarBiomass

Generators (5)

IDTechnologyFuelCapacityStatusOnline
D182Natural Gas Fired Combustion TurbineNatural Gas4.0 MWOperating2000
D189Natural Gas Fired Combustion TurbineNatural Gas3.7 MWOperating2000
D191Natural Gas Fired Combustion TurbineNatural Gas0.8 MWRegulatory
D192Natural Gas Fired Combustion TurbineNatural Gas0.8 MWRegulatory
D190Natural Gas Fired Combustion TurbineNatural Gas0.3 MWOperating2012

Emissions (annual)

CO₂43.2k metric tons
SO₂1 metric tons
NOₓ118 metric tons
CO₂ Rate1915 lb/MWh
U.S. grid average800 lb/MWhNatural gas combined-cycle average900 lb/MWhThis plant1,914 lb/MWhCoal plant average2,100 lb/MWh

Annual totals and CO₂ rate reported by EPA eGRID for 2023. Reference averages are approximate U.S.-wide figures from the same dataset.

Grid context

NERC RegionWECC
Balancing AuthorityCalifornia Independent System Operator

About Natural Gas plants

Natural gas plants are the workhorse of the modern grid. Combined-cycle units achieve very high efficiency and can ramp up and down quickly to balance variable renewables. They emit roughly half the CO₂ per MWh of coal and far less of other pollutants, but they still release upstream methane during fuel extraction.

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