At 100MWac, the Lapetus project will be the largest solar project built for an electric cooperative in the state of Texas.
Lapetus Project Site
Solar energy from the Lapetus facility will be sold in SolarBlocksTM under a multi-year Power Purchase Agreement. SolarBlocks is a power block purchasing strategy developed by 7X that enables customers to procure contractually guaranteed fixed blocks of energy produced from solar plants. The fixed blocks of solar, which can be forecasted down to the 15-minute settlement interval, locks in low energy rates during peak periods when electricity can be most expensive and removes the intermittent variability of delivered energy associated with traditional solar farms. SolarBlocks can be purchased by not only electric cooperatives and utilities but also corporations in competitive retail electricity markets. Read the Case Study here.
Project Details
| Project | Lapetus |
| Location | Andrews County, TX on ~800 acres |
| Projected Capacity | 100 MWac |
| Number of Modules | Approximately 339,622 |
| Developer | 7X Energy was the originating developer and owner |
| Owner | Duke Energy Renewables |
| Energy Buyer(s) | CoServ Electric, a utility serving over 220,000 electric meters in North Texas, and seven other Brazos Electric Power distribution cooperative members . |
| Contract Term | Multi-year |
| Operational Timeline | Breaking ground late Q1 2019; operational (COD) Q4 2019 |
Project Benefits
Environmental
Lapetus will produce over ~286,452 MWh of renewable energy in its first year of operation. This equates1 to:
- Carbon sequestered by almost 153,710 acres of forest in one year
- Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of almost 27,944 cars off the road for one year
- Reduction in CO2 emissions of over 19,559 homes’ electricity use for one year
Economic
- During construction the project will generate up to 150 jobs during the peak of construction
- Over the life of the facility, Lapetus will inject 20 million dollars in property tax revenue into Andrews County
1 https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator (2016 eGrid ERCOT CO2 lbs/MWh emissions factor)