Ørsted, a Danish power company, has decided to invest in the Mockingbird Solar Center, a 471MW AC solar power project in Texas.
The project, which will cover an area of 20km2 in Lamar County, is set to begin construction this month and is expected to be completed in 2024. The Mockingbird Solar Center, the largest in Ørsted's portfolio, is projected to produce enough clean energy to power over 80,000 households annually.
Ørsted region Americas CEO David Hardy said: “Adding almost half a gigawatt to our portfolio, the decision to build Mockingbird represents an important milestone for our onshore business and for our expansion in solar PV.
“We look forward to building Mockingbird and for this project to start producing clean energy at a large scale. Mockingbird will achieve this while doing so in a way that prioritises conservation and our deep commitment to the communities we serve.”
Ørsted announced that they will donate nearly 1,000 acres of land near the Mockingbird Solar Center project to the Nature Conservancy for the preservation of native prairie in northeastern Texas.
The company also revealed that Royal DSM, a health and nutrition company, has entered into a ten-year corporate power purchase agreement to buy a portion of the electricity generated by the project.
Ørsted currently has a global onshore renewable portfolio of 5.5 GW, including 1.8 GW of solar PV that is either in operation or under construction. In October 2022, the company sold a 50% stake in its 862MW operational renewable energy portfolio in the US, worth approximately $410 million, to Energy Capital Partners (ECP).
