Rockland Solar. Photo: Origis Energy
Renewable energy developer Origis Energy has brought another 500 megawatts (MWdc) of solar online at its Rockhound complex in West Texas, pushing the sprawling project’s operating capacity to nearly 1 gigawatt (GW).
The three newly completed phases are in Ector County and join Swift Air Solar, three adjoining Origis solar projects totaling about 500 MWdc within the Rockhound complex. Origis says Rockhound is now one of the largest renewable energy complexes in the US.
And it’s only about halfway built.
Origis plans to add another 1 GW of solar and battery storage at Rockhound by 2029, bringing the full complex to beyond 2 GW. The company is pitching the next phase to data centers for co-location and long-term corporate power contracts.
That data center pitch is hardly surprising. Their enormous and rapidly growing electricity needs have sent tech companies scrambling to lock in power supplies, and West Texas has abundant land, strong solar resources, and existing energy infrastructure.
Rockhound already supplies power under long-term contracts with Meta, oil and gas giant Occidental, nutrition and materials company dsm-firmenich, and steel-wire manufacturer Bekaert.
The company says the solar complex also supports the Texas grid and brings economic development to the region, although it didn’t provide specific job or investment figures in its announcement.
The next 1 GW will broaden Rockhound beyond solar by adding energy storage, which can hold onto some of that daytime generation and send it to the grid when it’s needed. Origis is betting that Rockhound’s scale and its ability to add storage will make the West Texas site attractive.
Read more: A 1.2 GW solar farm is rising at a Texas coal site – but coal is staying
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