Firm Buys Texas Coal Plant to Leverage its Grid Connections for New Massive Solar Project

Apolka Totth, the chief executive at Panamint, put the approach in plain terms when she explained that new power capacity works best when added to sites that already serve the grid. Panamint is spending 1.7 billion dollars on the Big Rooter Power complex in Robertson, Texas. The plan calls for 1.2 gigawatts of solar generation plus battery storage, all placed beside the Twin Oaks coal plant so the new output can travel over lines and equipment already paid for. The coal plant itself stays in service for now. Panamint is even studying ways to keep the facility and its mine running longer while the solar array rises on adjacent land. The company sees both resources as part of the same effort to meet demand without starting from empty ground. Similar reuse of former industrial land is underway elsewhere. Projects in Illinois, Kentucky, and Louisiana have already placed solar arrays on reclaimed mine sites, avoiding the higher costs and longer approvals that come with untouched acreage. Texas already leads the country in wind output and ranks high in solar as well. The state produces three times more wind power than Oklahoma and far more than California, even though California holds the top spot for total solar installed. Big Rooter will come online in stages. The first 491 megawatts of panels are set to begin delivering power in August 2028. Ground will break on the remaining 658 megawatts that December, with the full solar portion and 1.6 gigawatts of batteries ready by August 2029. Twenty miles of new high-voltage lines will tie the output into the regional grid. Early purchases of transformers and other long-lead equipment have already been made, helped by federal tax credits that cover half the project cost.