Eni’s renewable energy unit Plenitude has commenced production at its 263MW Golden Buckle solar project in Brazoria County, Texas, US.
Located 80km south of Houston, the solar power plant covers an area of more than 600 hectares.
The Golden Buckle solar project was set up in a little over a year, said Eni. It is expected to generate an average of 400GWh to 500GWh of solar energy per year, which is adequate to supply electricity to 45,000 households.
Eni stated that most of the electricity produced at the plant will be sold to US general merchandise retailer Target through a long-term contract (PPA).
The development of the Golden Buckle solar plant was supported by Novis Renewables, a partnership between Eni New Energy US and Renantis North America. Novis Renewables focuses on the development of solar, wind, and storage projects in the US.
Plenitude CEO Stefano Goberti said: “We have inaugurated the largest photovoltaic plant ever built by Plenitude in our short but successful history of renewable energy development.
“We are very proud of this achievement, with the project completed in time and on budget. It is a further step towards growing our renewable generation capacity, which exceeded 2 GW at the end of 2022, in line with our goal to achieve over 6 GW globally by 2025”.
In December 2022, Plenitude acquired the 81MW Kellam photovoltaic (PV) plant located in North Texas through its US subsidiary Eni New Energy US from Hanwha Qcells USA.
The Kellam PV plant is located 80km from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and covers an area of more than 150 hectares. The energy produced at the PV plant will be sold to a local power company.
