Six years after it started development work, Longroad Energy said that construction is now underway on its Umbriel Solar project, a 202 MWdc (150 MWac) PV project in Polk County Texas, northeast of Houston.
Entergy Texas signed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) for the project’s output.
Umbriel is Longroad’s sixth greenfield renewable energy project in Texas to reach financial close and its first in the state’s MISO footprint. The project is expected to reach commercial operations by the end of this year.
Project debt facilities were provided by Zions Capital Markets as a coordinating lead arranger and administrative agent, Silicon Valley Bank as a coordinating lead arranger, and Rabobank as a joint lead arranger. Longroad separately arranged tax equity details.
The project will be built by McCarthy Building Cos.
Major project vendors include, Series 6/6+ modules by First Solar, PV inverters supplied by Power Electronics, trackers supplied by Nextracker.
Operations and maintenance services will be provided by NovaSource and by Longroad’s affiliate Longroad Energy Services.
In mid-January, Longroad said it lined up financing and started work on Sun Streams 3, a 285 MWdc PV and 215 MWac / 860 MWh storage project in Maricopa County, Arizona, near Phoenix.
Sun Streams 3 is expected to begin commercial operations in 2024, and has a long-term PPA with Arizona Public Service.
Longroad acquired Sun Streams 3 from First Solar in early 2021 as part of a larger deal that included multiple projects in Arizona (including the 200 MWdc Sun Streams 2 solar project which has been operational since 2021) and other projects which are still in development. First Solar will supply its Series 6+ solar modules for the Sun Streams 3 project.
