Residents of the Houston area who want to power their homes using solar energy will be happy to know that a new 1,800-acre farm is scheduled to be built in Fort Bend, Texas. This solar farm will provide hundreds of megawatts to local homes.
The $170 million project will begin construction next year. Facility owners plan to open the farm by March 1, 2020. Landlease, a national property developer, will lease the farmland from local property owners.
FORT BEND’S SOLAR FARM IS NOT JUST ANOTHER INSTALLATION
Its sheer size is impressive, but the project will also include some innovative features to increase solar energy production and make it easier for local customers to receive power. A utility substation on site converts the energy from the installation to usable electricity, then is transmitted directly to CenterPoint Energy’s regional grid. The tracking system will tilt the panels to maximize solar absorption.
The Fort Bend installation is broken down into numbers.
The farm has 700,000. solar panels mounted on a rotating tracker, which allows the panels to be tilted for maximum solar potential.
The meetings will be able to provide enough energy for 40,000 CenterPoint Energy clients to power their homes.
In 2019, 150 people will be employed in the construction and initial installation. Another 52 employees will be hired in 2020. The facility will only require two employees once it is operational.
The FORT BEND FARM SOLAR PROJECT IS a Sign of Texas’s exploding solar industry.
Texas is already known as a solar leader. This new project will only enhance that reputation. The Lone Star State will continue to grow in solar power, with California currently being the state outpacing Texas. In 2018, the state had 48,260 solar power installations, which generated enough energy to run 349,044 households. Over the next five-year period, experts expect new facilities to increase the state’s solar capacity by 7,081 Megawatts.
San Antonio is the leader in Texas for solar installations. A study by Environment Texas Research and Policy Center placed San Antonio among its “Top 20 Solar Cities based on Total Installed PV Capacity” for 2016. San Antonio, with 117 megawatts, beat out other solar power bastions such as San Francisco and Portland.
Other parts of Texas will soon follow San Antonio’s lead: Besides the new Fort Bend facility, several other high-profile solar installations will be in Texas. , a new project in the Permian basin, was announced earlier this month. It will bring 495 megawatts of solar power installed to Texas and 495 megawatts of battery storage, making it the largest and most powerful installation in the state.
A further 127 Megawatts would be added to Texas’ solar power landscape by a planned 1,100-acre farm in Canton, Texas, near Dallas. This is enough energy to power approximately 25,000 homes. Texas’s solar power capacity will likely grow over the next decade with these projects in the Lone Star State. Our state is significant. Texas solar installations are a great example of the old saying: Everything is bigger in Texas.
Are you considering installing solar panels yourself? Freedom Solar can help residents of Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Irving harness the sun’s power by installing a solar system in their homes. Call us to arrange an initial consultation and join Texas’s growing solar energy revolution!