At 35 MWDC, 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.
Project Details
| Project | Lapetus |
| Location | Andrews County, TX on 640 acres |
| Projected Capacity | 35 MWDC |
| Number of Modules | Approximately 94,000 |
| Developer | 7X Energy is the originating and sole developer and owns 100% of the equity in the project. |
| Energy Buyer(s) | CoServ Electric, a utility serving over 220,000 electric meters in North Texas, and its generation and transmission provider, Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, Inc. |
| Contract Term | 20 years |
| Operational Timeline | Breaking ground summer 2019; operational (COD) Q4 2019 |
Project Benefits
Environmental
Lapetus will produce over 77,300 MWh of renewable energy in its first year of operation. This equates1 to:
- Carbon sequestered by almost 44,000 acres of forest in one year
- Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of almost 8,000 cars off the road for one year
- Reduction in CO2 emissions of over 5,500 homes’ electricity use for one year
Economic
- During construction of approximately 5 months, the project will generate about 35 jobs and up to 75 jobs during the peak of construction
- Over the life of the facility, Lapetus will inject over 5 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)