873rd largest plant in California · 6299th nationally
Santa Clara Cogen is a natural gas power plant in California with a nameplate capacity of 7.8 MW. It generates roughly 15.3k MWh per year — enough to power about 1,454 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 22% reflects intermittent or peaking operation. At 1098 lb CO₂/MWh, its emission rate sits above the national grid average of roughly 800 lb/MWh.
| Plant Name | Santa Clara Cogen |
|---|---|
| Operator | City Of Santa Clara - (Ca) |
| City | Santa Clara |
| County | Santa Clara County |
| State | California |
| ZIP | 95054 |
| Coordinates | 37.36430, -121.94424 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 3.9 MW | Retired | 1982 |
| 2 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 3.9 MW | Retired | 1982 |
| CO₂ | 8.4k metric tons |
|---|---|
| NOₓ | 23 metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 1098 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.
| NERC Region | WECC |
|---|---|
| Balancing Authority | California Independent System Operator |
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.