Constellation has come to terms on an agreement to buy power and project-specific renewable energy certificates (RECs) equal to 140 MW from the 200 MW Big Star Solar Project, currently under development in Bastrop County, Texas, just outside of Austin.
The energy and RECs will be used to fill power agreements with PepsiCo, McCormick & Co., Best Buy and two Viacom-owned TV stations. Each customer signed an equivalent long-term agreement with Constellation to receive energy and RECs from the project as part of their retail electric supply contract.
The supply agreements were carried out through the Constellation Offsite Renewables (CORe) retail power product. The mechanism was developed to increase business’ access to renewable energy purchases, without forcing the businesses themselves to go through the PPA process. The supply agreements for each company have a 10-year term, obviously starting once Big Star begins to deliver power.
Big Star Solar is expected to reach commercial operation in the second quarter of 2022. RWE Renewables is building the project, which will also come partnered with an 80 MW/120 MWh hour battery energy storage system. Hardware specifics on the project have not yet been publicized, nor have any specifics about the manufacturer or battery chemistry.
Energy generated from the Big Star solar project will allow McCormick to fully power both its Dallas manufacturing plant and distribution center with renewable electricity. It also will represent significant steps towards the other three companies’ renewable energy and emission reduction objectives.
Both PepsiCo and Best Buy have made commitments to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040; Pepsi has an interim goal of achieving a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.