Texas Sends A Renewable Energy Love Letter To Massachusetts – CleanTechnica

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Policy makers in Texas have been making a concerted effort to obstruct renewable energy investing. Nevertheless, the state continues to attract wind and solar developers like flies to honey. The latest project is particularly interesting because it involves 208 megawatts of solar energy in a first-of-its-kind deal earmarked for a climate action organization based in Massachusetts.

Aggregating For Renewable Energy At Competitive Rates

The organization in question is the Consortium for Climate Solutions, which launched in 2020 to leverage the collective renewable energy purchasing power of its members.

The non-commercial angle is the key. Property owners and businesses can use tax credits to help defray the cost of renewable energy, but tax credits are generally not available to nonprofit organizations, local governments, and other untaxed entities. In addition, smaller organizations don’t have the buying power to negotiate for a better rate. The Consortium enables them to aggregate their demand into one big lump, and leverage that to negotiate favorable terms.

Harvard, MIT, and the healthcare system Mass General Brigham anchored the 208-megawatt deal with the largest share of purchases, enabling them to negotiate rates. Smaller entities were able to get the same competitive terms through an arrangement with the energy group PowerOptions.

That filled out the aggregation to a total of 11 participants located in the Greater Boston and North Shore area, including  the City of Cambridge, Beth Israel Lahey Health, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Tufts University, the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, the public media station GBH, and the Museum of Fine Arts.

Renewable Energy & Virtual Power Purchase Agreements

The virtual power purchase agreement is another interesting element of the deal. It’s a variation on the familiar power purchase agreement, in which large-scale ratepayers support new wind or solar projects by committing to purchase the electricity up front. PPAs enable renewable energy developers to move their projects forward with off-takers in hand and a price already set for a period of time.

Initially, PPAs involved purchasers on the same grid as the project they support. The “virtual” element is relatively new. A VPPA enables purchasers to support renewable energy projects located outside of their local grid. Instead of receiving electricity, they receive renewable energy credits. Earlier this year, for example, a group of academic institutions in North Carolina and Pennsylvania joined in a VPPA to support the construction of the 150-megawatt SeBree Solar II project in Kentucky.

A Renewable Energy Model To Follow

The VPPA for the Consortium for Climate Solutions involves the 200-megawatt Big Elm Solar array in Bell County, Texas, which began operating earlier this year. In the same deal, the Consortium also secured a VPPA for a 208-megawatt wind farm in Bowman County, North Dakota to be operational in 2026, for a total of 408 megawatts.

The members of the Consortium do not get the tax benefits, but the local communities do. The solar and wind projects together are expected to generate a total of $64 million in tax revenue for local communities in Texas and North Dakota. Land leases for the projects will also add $100 million in income for local property owners.

The Consortium is already expecting that other institutions and non-taxable organizations will follow its lead. “By founding the Consortium with MIT, MGB, and PowerOptions members, we are not only catalyzing the transition to a cleaner grid, but also demonstrating a collaboration model that will enable a variety of nonprofit organizations and municipalities to work together,” explains Meredith Weenick, EVP of Harvard University.

A Solar Love Letter From Texas To Sweden

The power of VPPAs to move renewable energy projects forward was also on full display last month, when the leading Swedish fashion firm H&M Group contracted with bp-Lightsource to support the construction of the 125-megawatt Second Division solar array in Brazoria County, Texas.

“The solar farm is currently under construction in Brazoria County. The project will deliver electricity into the local grid, supporting with the local energy independence and security, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 155,000 metric tons each year,” H&M Group explained in a press statement in September.

“By partnering with solar and wind farm developers, we can help build renewable electricity capacity in power grids around the world,” emphasized Ulrika Leverenz, the Head of Green Investment at H&M.

H&M can’t use all those clean kilowatts itself, but the RECs associated with the project will enable the company to claim 100% renewable electricity for its operations by 2030 if not sooner, while also making more solar energy available to the Texas grid, where some of its many stores are located.

All together, H&M expects that more than half of its renewable energy purchases will take the form of a PPA or VPPA.

Renewable Energy & Farming, Too

H&M’s Second Division VPPA is also of interest because it supports the growth of the agrivoltaic movement, in which solar arrays are designed to accommodate farm activities.

By combining agriculture and renewable energy, the agrivoltaic movement undercuts solar opponents who argue that electricity generation is not an appropriate use of farmland. Advocates point out that solar arrays can be designed for farmers to earn additional revenue while continuing to work their land. The solar panels also help conserve soil and water by creating a partly shaded micro-climate.

“The constructed solar farm infrastructure takes up less than 10% of the land, enabling the planting of site-specific grasses and other vegetation under and around the solar panels, with a goal of increasing biodiversity in the first 5 years of operation,” H&M says of the Second Division project. Sheep will also be able to graze at the site (see more agrivoltaic background here).

The Consortium and H&M VPPAs are just a drop in the Texas renewable energy bucket. The state routinely nails down the #1 position in a state-by-state ranking of wind generating capacity, and it is closing in on California for #1 in solar. Politics aside, the state currently has almost 35,000 megawatts of installed solar capacity under its belt, a figure that is expected to top 50,000 megawatts over the next five years.

Small farmers could also help push the next wave of solar development in Texas. Keep an eye on the Agrivoltaic Climate-Smart Ag Markets program, a project of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The school won a US Department of Agriculture Grant to support agrivoltaic projects among small farmers in the region, with a wider goal in mind. The data-driven project is expected to build agrivoltaics into the USDA’s national toolkit for grantmaking and other financial assistance to farmers.

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Photo (cropped): A climate action consortium in Massachusetts deployed renewable energy credits to support a new 208-megwatt solar project in Texas (courtesy of Apex Energy).