California has quietly become one of the clearest examples of how fast solar power can reshape an electricity grid. By 2026 the state held roughly 23,400 megawatts of utility-scale solar capacity, second only to Texas, and once rooftop systems are counted it had more solar than any other state, about 43,500 megawatts. Solar is no longer a small contributor there. It has become one of the main ways the lights stay on.
The pace shows up in the record books. In May 2026 California produced more than half of its electricity from the sun across an entire month, believed to be a first for any large power system in the world. Across the first five months of the year, solar generated more electricity in the state than natural gas, a fuel that had led California’s power mix for decades.
That kind of change does not happen without steady building. Between April 2024 and April 2026, utility-scale solar capacity inside California’s main grid grew 19% to about 25 gigawatts, while battery storage, which stores daytime power for the evening, climbed 79% to 16 gigawatts. The trend reaches well beyond one state. Solar and storage together made up 91% of all new U.S. power capacity added in early 2026, the highest share on record. Developers across the country plan to install a record amount of new solar in 2026, with solar making up just over half of all planned capacity additions.
Against that backdrop, a new project in the California desert has just cleared an important financial step. On August 13, 2026, Recurrent Energy, the project development business of Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ), said it had closed $695 million in financing for its Cobalt Solar facility, a 330 megawatt project sited about 20 miles west of Blythe in Riverside County.
The funding arrived in two pieces. Roughly $484 million came as debt, including construction and term loans plus a letter of credit facility, led by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (NYSE: MUFG) and the German bank Nord/LB. The remaining $211 million was a tax equity investment from Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC). Tax equity is a common tool in U.S. renewable energy, pairing a project with an investor that can make use of its tax credits. Blattner Energy will serve as the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor.
Construction is already underway, and the plant is expected to start commercial operation by the end of 2027. Once running, Cobalt Solar should generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of about 82,000 homes each year. The company also expects it to deliver close to $14 million in property tax revenue to Riverside County, a reminder that these projects land in specific communities with local budgets attached.
For the parent company, the closing is a useful window into how the business actually makes money. Canadian Solar is best known as a manufacturer of solar panels, yet its Recurrent Energy arm develops, builds, and sells large projects, and deals like this one convert a long list of planned sites into real cash. The company now carries a stock market value of about $1 billion, far below its earlier highs, so news that a project has secured funding tends to draw attention. That gap between how it is perceived and how it earns is part of what makes these announcements matter.
The Cobalt deal says less about a single company than about a broader direction. Utility-scale solar in California keeps drawing large sums from mainstream banks, and every completed financing makes the next one look a little more routine. For a state that is already breaking generation records, another 330 megawatts rising in the desert is one more sign that solar has moved from the edges of the grid toward its middle.
