South Texas oil hot spot gets its first solar farm

The project is the first in Texas for a California energy company

An overhead shot shows a solar farm near Runge that became operational in December 2020.
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An overhead shot shows a solar farm near Runge that became operational in December 2020.

A new solar farm near Runge is the first renewable project to be brought online in Karnes County, the most productive oil and gas county in South Texas.

Oakland, California-based Adapture Renewables is overseeing a 13-megawatt farm, which became operational in December 2020. All the power generated by the small-use, utility-scale project, known as Catan Solar, is being bought by a subsidiary of NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG).

Catan Solar was Adapture’s first project built in Texas, though the company bought an operational wind farm near Dallas in March.

The project also represents the first renewable project of any kind in Karnes County, according to a U.S. Department of Energy map of the nation’s power plants.

Millions of barrels of oil are pumped from Karnes’ oil wells every month, making it one of the most active oil-producing counties in the state and the most active region of the Eagle Ford Shale.

Of the counties in the South Texas shale play, only gas-rich Webb County has an operational solar farm, according to the Energy Department. The wind energy industry also has multiple projects under development in South Texas’ oil fields.

The Webb County solar farm is operated by Cypress Creek Renewables, the same company that set the Karnes County project in motion.

Adapture bought the Karnes project from Cypress after land and contracts had been secured then used its own capital to build the farm. The company had bought assets from Cypress before, so the Karnes solar farm seemed like an ideal way to move into the Texas market, Goran Arya, director of business development for Adapture, told the Business Journal.

“Being able to deal with a previous partner that we’ve acquired projects from sort of made a much more seamless process than if we were to start a transaction with a completely new partner,” Arya said.

Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2021/04/01/oil-country-gets-its-first-solar-farm.html