March 18, 2019 • Industry-related News
Construction of Texas' largest solar farm gets underway near Midland
Construction of Texas' largest solar farm gets underway near Midland
Enel Green Power North America, Inc. last month kicked off construction of what will be the largest solar farm in Texas.
The company's 497-megawatt-hour Roadrunner solar project in Upton County, near Midland, will be built in two phases, and is expected to generate around 1.2 terawatt hours annually when it's fully operational.
Officials for the company anticipate the 2,770-acre project will create more than 500 jobs in the Permian Basin and contribute more than $60 million in property taxes over the next 30 years.
Enel Green Power North America is a subsidiary of Enel Green Power, an Italian multinational that owns or operates about 100 renewable energy plants throughout the United States and Canada.
In January, Enel Green Power also began work on its largest wind farm, dubbed High Lonesome, in Upton and Crockett counties.
Company officials say the two projects, along with Enel Green Power’s Texas-based Snyder wind farm in Scurry County, will generate 1 gigawatt of renewables growth in Texas.
That’s enough power to light 100 million LED bulbs.
“The U.S. market is rich with opportunities for growth and has an increasing appetite for sustainable electricity," said Georgios Papadimitriou, Head of Enel Green Power North America. "Projects like Roadrunner are indicative of our ability to (capitalize) on this trend, while boosting the diversity of the business both in geography and technology.”
The first 252 MW of the project are expected to be up and running by the end of 2019. The remaining 245 MW are set to be completed by the end of 2020, company officials said in a statement.
What is a watt?
It's not like the realm of oil and gas, where you deal with barrels and cubic feet. A watt is a power measurement. It measures the rate at which energy flows, or how fast electrons move. So it helps to think of it more as the miles-per-hour measurement of the electrical world.
Other facts:
- A 60-watt lightbulb will consume electricity at a rate of 60 watts.
- One horsepower is the equivalent to 750 watts; your average mid-sized car in the U.S. is 170-190 hp, though horsepower for high-performing pickups can be 275-300.
- One kilowatt is 1,000 watts. A megawatt is 1 million watts — which is enough to power roughly 200 homes.
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