Enel North America, the US subsidiary of Italian energy company Enel, has begun operations at a 297MWdc solar PV project in Navarro County, Texas.
The Fence Post project also includes an 86MW battery energy storage system (BESS), which is currently in the final stages of commissioning.
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A 12-year virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) is in place for a 22MW portion of the site with US automotive manufacturer Polaris. Under the deal, Polaris will purchase power and associated renewable energy certificates (REC) from Enel North America, sufficient to cover around 40% of its US electricity use.
“Polaris shares Enel’s mission to bring more clean energy onto the grid,” said Stephen Pike, head of Enel North America’s renewable energy production business, Enel Green Power North America. “Across all sectors, leaders like Polaris are stepping up to secure the economic and environmental benefits of renewable energy.”
A report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance earlier this month found that North and Latin America accounted for 45% of the corporate solar PPAs signed globally in 2023, around 21GW in total. 17.3GW of these were signed in the US.
Other than LyondellBassell, a chemical engineering company, the largest global renewable energy purchasers were tech giants; Amazon, Meta and Google signed for 5.3GW, 3GW and 990MW of solar and wind respectively.
Enel North America already has invested considerably into solar and energy storage in Texas. In September last year it signed a PPA with Boston Properties (BXP) for a 202MW/104MW solar-plus-storage site in the state. BXP will offtake 21MW of the power output form the project, which is currently under construction and expected online in “late 2024”.
Back in March 2023, the company signed another corporate PPA deal with confectioner Nestlé for the entire output of a 208MW solar-plus-storage site in Jackson County, Texas.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) transmission network, which operates most of the grid in Texas, reached a record peak of solar power generation last Tuesday, generating 16.7GW from solar power resources alone.