BP Begins Construction on Texas Solar Farm

Texas, already in second position in the U.S. for its solar capacity, is getting another solar farm.?BP ?(NYSE:BP ) (London, England) and its joint venture?Lightsource BP ?(London) announced the commencement of construction of the Peacock solar farm near Corpus Christi earlier this week. The facility has a power purchase agreement (PPA) in place with a nearby petrochemical plant that could possibly see a major expansion in the coming years. The Peacock facility will be located a few miles north of Gregory, Texas, near Corpus Christi. The plant will use more than 154,000 solar panels manufactured by?First Solar Incorporated ?(NASDAQ:FSLR ) (Tempe, Arizona) to provide more than 150 megawatts (MW) of generation. The solar plant will practice "agrovoltaics" in the form of sheep grazing at the site, which is meant to benefit the local economy and keep farmland active. Engineering, procurement and construction contractor?PCL Construction ?(Edmonton, Canada) is expected to complete the project in the first half of next year. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database can?click here ?for more details. The Peacock facility will be situated near the massive petrochemical complex of?Gulf Coast Growth Ventures LLC ?(GCGV), a joint venture company of?Exxon Mobil Corporation ?(NYSE:XOM ) (Irving, Texas) and?Saudi Basics Industries Corporation (SABIC) ?(Riyadh, Saudi Arabia). The complex includes an ethylene unit and downstream units producing linear low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene and monoethylene glycol. The materials are used to manufacture clothes, food containers, packaging, agricultural film, construction materials and much more. At the time of construction in 2019 through 2021, it was one of the biggest projects underway in the U.S. All of the power generated from the Peacock solar plant will go toward energizing the GCGV facility via a PPA in place between BP and GCGV. GCGV is in the early planning stages for the construction of a new ethylene unit along the Gulf Coast. With Peacock's solar energy allocated to the facility, the petrochemical site may be a good location for ExxonMobil and SABIC, both of which hope to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, to put in place their net-zero ambitions. The exact location of the ethylene project remains undetermined, although there is space at the 13,000-acre petrochemical site, and construction remains a few years off.

Lightsource BP has become one of the leading solar developers in the U.S., with more than $5.5 billion worth of active projects in the U.S., including more than $2 billion worth in Texas. One of the company's biggest projects set for Texas is the Crowded Star solar farm in Jones County. The facility will include more than 596,000 photovoltaic solar modules and 74 inverters to provide nameplate generation of 215 MW. The project is set to kick off next year and is expected to take about two years to complete. But that's really only half of the project. A few months after submitting plans to local regulators for the original Crowded Star project, Lightsource BP submitted a proposal to expand the facility by another 185 MW, construction of which will run more or less concurrently with the original 215-MW portion of the project. Eventually, the site may even boast a battery energy storage system, although this has been given a low (0-69%) probability of moving forward as planned by Industrial Info.? Another Lightsource BP project in Texas is set for Corpus Christi, this time near Sinton, where a large steel mill is located. The Alila photovoltaic solar plant will use more than 860,000 solar modules to provide nameplate generation of 256 MW. Construction could kick off early next year, putting the facility on track for completion in 2025. Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).