Cypress Creek Renewables announced it has completed construction of a 208 MW solar facility in Texas. The facility includes 80 MWh of short-duration energy storage that has already served the ERCOT grid during times of peak electricity demand, showing the ability of hybrid solar-storage plants to flexibly serve electricity demand oscillations.
The site reached commercial operation on May 2, adding enough capacity to the grid to serve the equivalent of 41,600 homes in the Brackettville, Texas area. Over $11.5 million in tax revenues are expected to be generated for the county by the project, along with $11.7 million earmarked for the Bracket Independent School District.
“Texas needs every available megawatt, and low-cost renewable energy has proven critical as it continues to reach new production heights in ERCOT,” said Judd Messer, Texas vice –president, Advanced Power Alliance. “Solar energy is ensuring sufficient capacity during day-time peak, setting records nearly every month, and quick-responding energy storage delivers a substantial reliability benefit when demand soars or when dispatchable energy unexpectedly falls offline.”
Cypress Creek is backed by EQT Partners, a global investment corporation. EQT said the project, called the Zier Hybrid Solar Site, is a critical step towards supporting Texas’ expanding power demands “driven by a growing population, ever increasing data center demand with the rise of AI, and electrification.”
The project was financed by several partners including the North American Development Bank (NADBank), a binational financial institution established to provide support for projects that preserve, protect or enhance the environment to advance the well-being of the people of the United States and Mexico.
“Combined solar and battery storage projects, like this one, are vital for ERCOT’s grid reliability and energy availability to power our great state,” said John Beckham, managing director of the NADBank.
Cypress Creek, founded in 2014, operates nearly 1 GW of solar and storage assets across Texas, including 18 Cypress Creek-owned projects. The company has a 6 GW pipeline of 24 utility-scale projects in construction or development, including a 100 MWh standalone battery project planned to reach operations in the Houston area next month.
Texas is a leading solar market in the United States, driven forward largely by utility-scale installations like the Zier Hybrid project by Cypress Creek. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) said nearly 23 GW of solar has been installed in the state, or enough to power about 2.6 million homes. Over the next five years, SEIA expects nearly 41 GW of solar to be installed in Texas.
Meet the pv magazine USA team at the RE+ Texas conference at the George R. Brown Convention Center, May 14 to 15 in Houston Texas.
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