INTERVIEW: Orsted provides update on solar pipeline in Texas
Orsted is expecting to bring three separate solar projects to fruition in Texas in 2024 as it eyes larger projects to support green hydrogen activity.
The company’s efforts to complete these Texas solar projects may help offset some of the losses the company is currently experiencing in the offshore wind market on the East Coast. As reported by NPM, the company has reported billions of dollars in impairments driven by the cancellation of its Ocean Wind projects and has reduced its plans to have 50 GW of renewable capacity installed down to 35-38 GW of capacity. That reduction is being accompanied by hundreds of employee layoffs starting with 250 announced on Feb. 7.
The crown jewel of Orsted’s current Texas solar pipeline is the 471 MW Mockingbird Solar project, which the firm has had in development since late 2019 and has thus survived the COVID-19 pandemic, major supply constraints and, more personally, a conservation hangup with environmental group The Nature Conservancy. Despite the project’s lengthy history, Ørsted only relatively recently made the final decision to proceed with construction on the project in January 2023.
But now, armed with three PPAs and a significant biodiversity component, Mockingbird Solar is slated to reach full COD by the end of the year as Orsted’s largest solar project in the U.S.
The first and largest of Mockingbird Solar’s offtake contracts has been in place for years stretching back to 2021 when the company signed a PPA with Royal DSM. After making the final decision to move forward with the project last year, it signed two additional PPAs, one with Covestro in early 2023 for 90 MW of capacity and another with Bloomberg announced just a few weeks ago for the remaining 80 MW bringing the project to fully contracted status.
The project also marks Orsted’s first solar project in Texas to incorporate a significant conservation component, though this was not something that was planned at the start of development. After learning of the project’s originally proposed 4,900-acre site that spilled into what is known as the Smiley Woodfin Native Prairie Grassland, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) approached Orsted noting significant biodiversity concerns.
In an interview with NPM, Orsted spokesperson Charlotte Bellotte says TNC conducted a site visit and sent a list of best practices for conservation of the prairie, which is a particularly rare and endangered topography native to the U.S., to the developer. Bellotte says Orsted, which had previously worked with TNC on a similar conservation effort with its Sunflower Wind project in Kansas and had already set an internal biodiversity goal for its projects post-2030 ultimately decided to donate a 1,000-acre parcel of land housing the blackland prairie to TNC’s conservation efforts.
Notably, while the majority of the Mockingbird site is leased, Bellotte says the conservation move did require the firm to outright purchase the land associated with the Smiley Woodfin Prairie for donation. She says the current plan is for the firm to finalize the donation once the project reaches full commercial operations.
NPM previously spoke with TNC regarding its conservation efforts with Mockingbird Solar as well as its development of a map tool to be used by renewable project developers seeking to avoid potential environmental risks when siting projects across the MISO region.
Other solar projects
Bellotte says Orsted is seeking to finalize the 250 MW Sparta Solar project, also currently under construction. The firm is also wrapping construction on the final phase of its 430 MW Old 300 Solar project, which is already partially operable. All three projects are expected to wrap this year with Sparta and Old 300 slated for COD in the first half of the year with Mockingbird Solar to follow in the latter half.
Once completed, the three projects and Orsted’s only other Texas project, the already operational 420 MW Permian Solar project, will make up a hefty 1,575 MW of Texas solar capacity, nearly matching the firm’s operating wind fleet of 1,960 MW in the state.
A large capacity scope unites all of Orsted’s projects in Texas to date, something Bellotte says is likely to continue as “improvements in technology, innovation and deployment enable larger-scale and larger-capacity projects.” In particular, Bellotte says Orsted is currently planning additional renewable development in Texas around the Gulf to support its green hydrogen development efforts. NPM previously spoke with the firm about its plans for green hydrogen in Texas and its growing presence at the Gulf region of the state last year.
Separately, Bellotte says Orsted is also looking to add storage to its fleet in Texas which currently consists of a 40 MW component paired with its Permian Solar project.
*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.
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