Lately, states across the U.S. and around the world are in competition about which is adding more solar power. With the Webberville Solar Project – a 30 MW plant in Webberville, Texas – we get the same impression. Not that it’s a bad thing! When you think about the 5,000 US homes that will be enjoying clean, cheap energy, you feel like we might have a chance to save the planet after all.
Actually, Austin Energy first thought of the project more as a way to ensure the high level of energy needed during summer. Then of course, comes the plea to lower the emissions level.
The project is also a way to help generations to come, since Austin Energy will be buying the energy and the renewable energy credits at fixed prices for the next 25 years, which means a total production of 1.4 billion kWh of clean energy.
As the largest active solar project of any public power utility in the country and one of the biggest in Texas, the plant is a major progress in reaching a 35% “green” energy threshold in 2020.
Although the inauguration of the farm took place at the beginning of January, the 127,000 photovoltaic solar modules are up and running since December last year. They are perched up on single-axis trackers which allow them to orientate themselves after the sun.
We hope that, at least in this sense, Texas won’t be the “lone star state” and will set an example for the rest of the US to follow.
[via Austin Energy]
