Arkansas utility contracts NextEra to build 100MW PV project with 30MW storage

LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email
Inauguration ceremony for the Entergy Arkansas-NextEra Resources 100MW Stuttgart Solar project, Arkansas. Image: Entergy.

NextEra Resources will build a 100MW solar farm for Arkansas utility Entergy Arkansas, to include 30MW of battery energy storage, as Entergy seeks to build out solar capacity in the state.

Entergy Arkansas said yesterday that it has contracted NextEra Resources, one of the three main NextEra power producer companies along with Florida Light & Power and NextEra Energy, to build the project near Searcy, in White County Arkansas.

Scheduled for completion in 2021, it remains subject to approval by the state’s regulatory Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Entergy will own and operate plant once it has been designed and built by NextEra, bringing the utility’s solar generation capacity in its service area up to 281MW. All of that 281MW capacity will be coming from NextEra plants, following following the completed 81MW project near the town of Stuttgart and the 100MW Chicot Solar farm, currently under construction. Entergy buys the power from both of those plants under power purchase agreements (PPAs).

Entergy did not give details of the planned battery addition to the 100MW Searcy solar farm, except to say that it will be a lithium-ion based energy storage system of 30MW – capacity figures in megawatt-hours were not provided in the utility’s release. However, Entergy did say that the “stored energy is expected to be charged and discharged daily to maximise the value of the solar energy”.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

Not ready to commit yet?
  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

RFP issued for up to 200MW PV capacity

Entergy Arkansas issued a Request for Proposals for the building of new solar power facilities at the beginning of February. The utility set a minimum of 50MW and an upper limit of 200MW to be procured, for projects to be purchased under “build-own-transfer” transaction structures, with all proposed projects to be located within Arkansas’ portion of the Midcontinent System Operator (MISO) service area.

The Request for Proposals document stipulated that solar facilities could include an option for the addition of battery energy storage facilities, costed separately from the solar PV generation. Parties proposing projects may also add in separately costed O&M contract proposals for to two years after they go into service. Entergy Arkansas wants to close financial transactions for asset aqcuisitions by June 2021 and no later than the end of 2022.

“As the largest solar provider and a leader in renewable energy in Arkansas, Entergy is proud to bring a third large-scale solar project to the state that will allow our customers to benefit from the economic and environmental advantages of renewable energy, while at the same time learning about the benefits of battery storage,” Entergy Arkansas CEO and president Laura Landreaux said.

Landreaux said the utility is responding to the wishes of its customers, who Landreaux said wanted to see more solar in Entergy Arkansas’ energy mix.

“We want all of our customers to have the benefit of solar energy, and we also want to help individual customers meet their renewable energy goals,” Landreaux said, adding that the recent approval of a Solar Energy Tariff by the PUC would also give individual customers the option to purchase solar power.

Read Next

October 3, 2025
EDF Renewables has brought its 300MWh Milagro project online in New Mexico, while Enlight Renewable Energy has secured US$340 million in tax equity financing for its 940MWh Roadrunner project in Arizona.
October 2, 2025
Major US utility company Duke Energy has filed its biennial long-range energy modernisation plan for North and South Carolina, US. The plan includes a 5,600MW battery storage target.
October 1, 2025
Energy storage escaped much of the pain inflicted on solar in recent legislative changes in the US, but foreign entity restrictions may create some supply chain challenges, writes April Bonner.
October 1, 2025
In a recently published interview with Energy-Storage.news Premium, CEO and President of Prevalon Energy, Thomas Cornell, spoke about the global consequences of the budget reconciliation bill.
September 30, 2025
According to the Q3 2025 US Energy Storage Monitor from Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the American Clean Power Association (ACP), annual installations will not reach 2025 levels again until 2029.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter