National Grid invites local community to celebrate construction of Texas solar-plus-storage project

November 2, 2021
LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email
US and Texas flags at the project site during the celebration in Denton County, Texas, last week. Image: National Grid Renewables YouTube video screenshot.

A community engagement event was hosted last week for a solar-plus-storage project under construction in Denton County, Texas, pairing 275MW of solar PV with 125MW of battery energy storage. 

Hosted by National Grid Renewables, which is developing the project, the economic and environmental benefits of the project for the local area were celebrated at the event, including the appointment of nearly 500 workers — many of them locals — during construction, and the contribution of around US$30 million of combined economic benefit through the area’s tax base and on-site operations and maintenance (O&M) employment over the first 20 years of its operational lifetime. 

The project is under construction and expected to go online next year. 

The Noble Solar and Storage Project is being supplied with thin-film solar PV modules from First Solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) technology from Fluence. First Solar’s Series 6 modules, launched in October last year and manufactured in the US, will be used. 

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

In a minor coincidence Fluence’s Gridstack battery storage equipment being used is also from the energy storage company’s sixth generation range of products, also launched last year. In a previous press release about the project, the BESS’ capacity was cited as 125MWh, making it a one-hour duration battery system of the type recently seen deployed to capture opportunities in the Texas ERCOT electricity market

Three corporate off-takers have signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) for the solar PV: home improvement retailer The Home Depot, power company NRG and chocolate and candy maker The Hershey Company. Home Depot and NRG each have a 100MW PPA in place and Hershey a 50MW PPA. 

In attendance along with National Grid Renewables, NRG and Hershey executives were representatives from First Solar, Fluence and construction partner Signal Energy, along with clean energy advocacy group Powering Texas, meeting community members, customers and landowners. 

“We are proud to support National Grid Renewables’ Noble project with industry-leading energy storage technology that will help make the electric system cleaner and more resilient.

“A uniquely flexible asset, energy storage delivers value to both the electric grid and consumers by enabling greater use of renewable energy and also providing additional critical grid services,” Fluence’s Americas president John Zahurancik said. 

National Grid Renewables held the event to honour the first annual American Clean Power Week which ran from 25 to 29 October. 

Read Next

October 30, 2025
Victoria’s home battery energy storage programme has supported the installation of approximately 20,000 residential energy storage systems, doubling its original target of 10,000 units, according to the state’s climate action minister, Lily D’Ambrosio.
October 29, 2025
Propwr, a division of ProPetro, has secured a long-term power supply contract to commit 60MW of energy to support a hyperscaler data centre operator in the Midwest region of the US.
October 29, 2025
IPPs Greenvolt and European Energy have finalised financial deals for solar-plus-storage projects in Denmark and Latvia, while Olana and Energix have enlisted optimisers for BESS projects in Lithuania and Poland, respectively.
October 28, 2025
Finnish marine and energy technology group Wärtsilä will deliver what it claims is Australia’s largest DC-coupled hybrid battery energy storage system (BESS) for the National Electricity Market (NEM).
October 27, 2025
The Emirati state-owned renewables developer Masdar has begun construction on a giant solar-plus-storage project in Abu Dhabi.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter