SB Energy opens 900 MW PV cluster in Texas with Google PPA

The projects include over 1.3 million cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film modules from US manufacturer First Solar, delivered from the company’s manufacturing facility in Perrysburg, Ohio. First Solar has also begun development of two additional U.S. module production sites in Alabama and Louisiana. By completion in 2026, the company aims to achieve a nominal production capacity of 14 GW in the United States.

Additionally, the Orion Solar Belt includes smart solar trackers from Nextracker, with most components manufactured domestically. SB Energy hired Blattner to provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the project.

The domestic content bonus adds a 10% tax credit on top of the 30% production tax credit (PTC) already included in the IRA. To qualify, projects must be constructed with at least 40% “made in the United States” components, as defined by the Treasury Department and calculated on a cost basis. This threshold will be raised to 55% next year.

At the launch of the project, US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, in attendance, said the Orion Solar Belt embodies the Biden-Harris administration’s American-designed and American-built clean energy industrial strategy.

“This future is seen in action through the Orion Solar Belt in Texas,” Granholm said, adding, “This project shows how American-made clean energy can power data centers and our future.”

Orion Solar Belt powers Google data centers

Readers of PV Tech may be aware that the Orion solar PV projects will power tech giant Google’s data centers in Ellis County and its Dallas cloud region through a power purchase agreement (PPA) signed in November 2022.

At the time, the PPA was Google’s largest joint clean energy transaction in Texas and remains the tech giant’s largest investment in solar-based energy worldwide. The agreement came as part of the company’s stated commitment to run on carbon-free energy “every hour of the day” by 2030.

Ben Sloss, vice president of 24×7 & Capacity at Google, expressed that the company is “excited” to see the Orion Solar Belt come online and that it “helps build a stronger future for communities and Google in Texas “.

Earlier this year, Google announced plans to invest over $1 billion in Texas. The goal of this investment is to improve cloud and data center infrastructure to meet increasing demand for Google Cloud services, AI and other digital products that people and organizations use every day, including Search, Maps and Workspace.