Independent power company Leeward Renewable Energy LLC has kicked off the construction of its 200-MW Horizon Solar park in Texas that will produce power for US wireless carrier Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ).
To be installed near the city of Pearsall in Frio County, the photovoltaic (PV) farm is scheduled to commence operations by the closing quarter of 2023, Leeward said on Wednesday. Its future output is estimated at around 500,000 MWh per year, equal to the electricity consumption of over 40,000 average Texas homes.
Leeward will use PV modules by First Solar and NexTracker’s solar tracking solutions.
Once up and running, the solar park will run under a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Verizon, which the telecommunications giant signed under a bundled deal for 640 MW of power from Leeward at the start of 2022. The contracts are tied to the output of one wind and three solar parks and back Verizon's goal to be net zero in its direct operational emissions by 2035.
During the construction phase, the Horizon project will open around 400 job positions. Once it goes online, Leeward will have more than 1.2 GW of contracted solar parks in operation by end-2023, as well as 16 GW of solar projects in development and construction.
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