OCI Solar Power’s Alamo 2 project in the US state of Texas. Credit: OCI Solar Power
Spanish firm Matrix Renewables has acquired the 284MW Stillhouse solar project in the US state of Texas from solar farm developer OCI Solar Power.
While neither company announced the funds involved in the deal, Matrix described the project as a “late-stage development” and will complete construction work next year, ahead of a planned start of commercial operations in 2025.
Charles Kim, president and CEO of OCI added that the company has already completed the necessary land acquisition, environmental reviews and “electrical interconnection studies” for the project, and Matrix will be optimistic that its role in overseeing the construction work will be relatively straightforward.
“We are very pleased with the acquisition of the Stillhouse project, and we look forward to completing power offtake, procurement and financing for the project in the coming months,” said Cindy Tindell, managing director and head of US for Matrix. “We appreciate the partnership with the OCI team and their efforts to get the projects to this stage.”
With the acquisition of the Stillhouse project, in Bell County, Matrix now has close to 6GW of projects in what it called “various stages of development” across the US, part of a global portfolio of solar projects with a total capacity of 12GW. OCI, meanwhile, has built and sold on more than 1GW of projects across the US, and plans to construct another 2GW of projects, as interest in solar power grows in the country.
Earlier this week, US firm Summit Ridge Energy and Japanese energy company Osaka Gas USA announced a “nine-figure investment” into renewables development in the US. However, the recent heatwave in Texas in particular has placed additional stress on the state’s energy grid, most notably its battery storage components, as extreme climatic conditions test the limits of a grid undergoing rapid change.
