Background

The electricity generated by the project will be delivered to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) power grid at the Brackettville substation, so it will probably be consumed in Kinney County and surrounding areas. ERCOT provides service to approximately 75% of
the land area in Texas, including the entire Texas border region, except for El Paso County. In 2012, approximately 14% of the power generation capacity in the ERCOT grid came from renewable sources, while 86% was supplied by fossil-fuel-based plants.

The electricity produced by the project will be sold to CPS Energy, the nation’s largest municipally-owned energy utility, providing service to nearly 741,000 electric and 331,000 natural gas customers covering portions of Bexar, Atascosa, Bandera, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina and Wilson Counties in Texas. CPS has set an ambitious goal of achieving 1,500 MW or 20% of its total generation capacity from renewable energy by 2020. At the end of 2012, 13% of the energy that CPS provided customers came from wind, solar and landfill gas. This project will help increase CPS’ renewable energy mix to approximately
13.4%.

Description

The project consists of designing, building and operating a 39.6 MWAC solar park using polycrystalline photovoltaic modules mounted on a dual-axis tracking system, and will be executed under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.

The solar park will BE constructed on two contiguous parcels of land totaling 633 acres and will be interconnected through an existing transmission line to the Brackettville substation located adjacent to the northwest corner of the site.

Benefits

The project will displace greenhouse gases produced by traditional fossil-fuel based energy generation and thus contribute help improve air quality, while providing residents in and around Kinney County, Texas, with a safe, reliable energy alternative. Estimated emission
improvements include the displacement of over 52,965 metric tons/year of carbon dioxide (CO2), 91 metric tons/year of sulfur dioxide (SO2), and 43 metric tons/year of nitrogen oxides (NOx). The project is expected to generate electricity equivalent to the annual
consumption of approximately 5,200 households.