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Houston-area solar farm project secures $185M in financing, names engineering firm

Mike Damante
Dec 27, 2023, 8:57 am
The Fort Bend County project is expected to begin construction early next year. Photo by Red Zeppelin/Pexels

A solar project in Fort Bend County has secured funding and an engineering firm this month.

Impact investment firm Advantage Capital has committed to provide a $185 million investment to Sabanci Renewables Inc., a North American subsidiary of Sabanci Holding based in Austin, to complete the financing of its Cutlass Solar II project 40 miles southwest of Houston. Cutlass II is a 272 MWdc utility-scale solar project under construction in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

The project will be located in Fort Bend County. Advantage Capital’s tax equity investment will provide the external capital for Sabanci to complete the project. Sabanci Renewables will own and operate the facility.

“This investment with Sabanci Renewables perfectly aligns with Advantage Capital’s commitment to funding clean energy projects nationwide and will especially have a positive impact on the community in greater Fort Bend County, Texas,” Tom Bitting, Principal at Advantage Capital, says in a news release. “We are thrilled to be working with Sabanci, a trusted name in the global energy industry, in bringing this project online for the benefit of its stakeholders.”.

Operations for Cutlass II are expected in April 2024. The project includes over 500,000 solar panels situated on over 1,000 acres of land. The solar panels are expected to help provide sustainable electricity to more than 80,000 homes in Texas, help to mitigate energy supply security concerns due to hotter weather, and create jobs.

“We are happy to partner up with Advantage Capital in our first renewable energy project in the U.S. and proud to demonstrate our execution capabilities in such a competitive market under such a challenging environment,” Ismail Bilgin, CEO of Sabanci Renewables, said in a news release.

Virginia-headquartered Bechtel, which has a big presence in Houston, has been selected to build the facility for Sabanci Renewables. Sabanci Renewables will own and operate the facility.

"Bechtel is honored to partner with Sabanci Renewables to support a clean energy future," says Kelley Brown, EPC Operations manager, North America Core Renewables, Bechtel Infrastructure, in another news release. "Bechtel's use of new technology in robotics and digital management will help move Cutlass Solar Two from construction to operations in record time, bringing additional renewable energy generation to Texas."

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ExxonMobil secures approval for $5B East Texas carbon capture project

ExxonMobil has gotten the green light for a major carbon capture project in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area. Photo via htxenergytransition.org

Spring-based ExxonMobil has won approval from the Texas Railroad Commission for a $5 billion carbon capture and storage project in East Texas.

Dominic Genetti, senior vice president of CCS at ExxonMobil, told The Financial Times, which broke the news, that the Railroad Commission’s action is a “major milestone” that lets the company keep expanding along the Gulf Coast. In a 2-1 vote, commissioners authorized a carbon sequestration permit for the project.

“The Railroad Commission clearly recognizes the important role carbon capture and storage can play in meeting growing global demand for lower-carbon products while supporting new jobs and economic growth,” Genetti said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved ExxonMobil’s Rose CCS project last year.

The project will enable the company to inject about 53 metric tons of industrial customers’ carbon emissions into three underground wells it drilled in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area. Over a 13-year period, ExxonMobil plans to inject about 4 million metric tons per year into the Fleming and Upper Frio rock formations, according to Carbon Herald.

ExxonMobil says it owns the world’s first and largest CCS system, comprising 1,300 miles of CO2 pipeline and secure storage sites. Seventy percent of the pipelines are along the Gulf Coast.

The company ramped up its CCS business in 2023 with the $4.9 billion purchase of Denbury, which owned about 1,000 miles of CO2 pipelines.

“Our expertise, combined with Denbury’s talent and CO2 pipeline network, expands our low-carbon leadership and best positions us to meet the decarbonization needs of industrial customers while also reducing emissions in our own operations,” ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said when the deal closed.

In January, Genetti wrote in a post on ExxonMobil’s website that the company is committed to CCS “for the long haul.”

“CCS is not new technology, but it’s flown relatively under the radar compared with the attention that production of hydrocarbons commands,” he wrote. “Now, as the world becomes more aware of the need to reduce emissions, CCS finally has a brighter spotlight and a broader runway to scale up.”

The company also announced this week that it has begun CCS operations at a direct reduced iron facility in Convent, Louisiana. The project will capture, transport and store up to 800,000 metric tons of CO2 per year, according to the company.

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