ENGIE Boosts Houston’s Use of Solar Power

By Anca Gagiuc

SolaireHolman Plant, Alpine, Texas

The City of Houston, the largest municipal purchaser of renewable energy in the U.S., announced that ENGIE’s 50-megawatt SolaireHolman plant recently came online. The facility is capable of providing up to 10.5 percent of the City’s electricity needs with clean, affordable solar power for the next 20 years under a power purchase agreement.

SolaireHolman was developed and implemented by ENGIE subsidiaries Solairedirect North America and ENGIE North America, and is located in Alpine, Texas. The solar plant is one of the largest installations in Texas and includes 203,840 solar panels on 360 acres. The energy it produces will be delivered to Hermann Park Zoo, the Bob Lanier Public Works Building, wastewater treatment plants and several Bush Intercontinental Airport terminals.

“As the energy capital of the world, it is important that Houston lead by example and show that investing in solar and renewable energy is a critical tool cities must use to prepare for the future. As the nation’s largest municipal purchaser of green power, we are living proof that large, industrial cities like Houston can have a robust economy but also help fight climate change,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a prepared statement.

The SolaireHolman plant strengthens Houston’s national leadership in renewable energy and use of solar energy. The city has ranked first in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Top 30 Local Government list of the largest green power users from the Green Power Partnership. The City is also seventh on EPA’s overall Top 100 green power users. Houston uses nearly one billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually, which represents more than 89 percent of its total energy needs.

Image courtesy of Gilbert Perez via LinkedIn