Background

Historically, the United States has depended to a great extent on fossil fuels for the generation of electricity. These conventional sources of energy adversely affect the environment due to the harmful emissions produced in their processes, including greenhouse gases (GHG) and other pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Consequently, there is a need for affordable and environmentally beneficial alternatives to conventional hydrocarbon-based energy sources. Renewable energy projects create an opportunity to generate electricity using sources that do not produce GHG and criteria pollutants (SO₂, NOx, etc.) like those released by fossil-fuel‐based plants. Sunlight is a clean form of renewable energy, which means that it can be used continuously without depleting natural resources and does not produce waste byproducts that require disposal or gas emissions that contribute to air pollution. 

Project Scope

The project consists of the design, construction and operation of the Corazon solar park with a generation capacity of 200 megawatts of alternating current (MW_AC). The solar park will be developed on approximately 2,000 acres of private land and will be interconnected to the existing 345-kV Electric Transmission Texas (ETT) Lobo Station operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). The electricity produced by the project will be sold to a Direct Energy through a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) and in the wholesale electricity market.

Objective

The Project is increasing the installed capacity of renewable energy resources, which will help reduce future demand on traditional fossil fuel-based energy production and thus help prevent the emission of greenhouse gases and other pollutants from power generation using fossil fuels.