41st largest plant in California · 738th nationally
Walnut Creek Energy Park is a natural gas power plant in California with a nameplate capacity of 500 MW. It generates roughly 371.4k MWh per year — enough to power about 35,367 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 8% reflects intermittent or peaking operation. At 1105 lb CO₂/MWh, its emission rate sits above the national grid average of roughly 800 lb/MWh.
| Plant Name | Walnut Creek Energy Park |
|---|---|
| Operator | Walnut Creek Llc |
| City | Industry |
| County | Los Angeles County |
| State | California |
| ZIP | 91744 |
| Coordinates | 34.00871, -117.94486 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GT1 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 100 MW | Operating | 2013 |
| GT2 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 100 MW | Operating | 2013 |
| GT3 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 100 MW | Operating | 2013 |
| GT4 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 100 MW | Operating | 2013 |
| GT5 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 100 MW | Operating | 2013 |
| CO₂ | 205.3k metric tons |
|---|---|
| SO₂ | 1 metric tons |
| NOₓ | 19 metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 1105 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.