Petrochemical company INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy for a 310MW solar project in north central Texas.
INEOS USA, a subsidiary of London-based INEOS Group, one of the largest chemical companies in the world, will offtake the entirety of the power produced at the Bosque County solar project. The company said the power is expected to “cover the net purchased electricity load” of its 14 manufacturing, fractionation and storage facilities across the US.
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Construction on the project is expected to commence in early 2024, with operations set to begin by the end of 2025. It is expected to produce 730,000MWh of energy a year.
CEO of INEOS, Mike Nagle said: “INEOS O&P USA seeks to be a bellwether of what the petrochemical community can do to adopt renewable energy among its long-term energy demands, and this is one of many important steps being taken globally to reduce the carbon footprint of all the INEOS businesses.”
“We commend INEOS for taking a leading role in decarbonizing the petrochemical industry,” said Matt Handel, senior vice president of development for NextEra Energy Resources.
Texas has seen a number of large-scale PPAs in recent months. Fast food giant McDonald’s signed a 332MW virtual PPA with EDF Renewables, for power produced at the Apollo solar project in Texas to offset the fast food chain’s US emissions. Google also recently signed a 942MW PPA with SB Energy to fuel a data centre in Midlothian, Texas, with power produced at four solar plants.
Last month, NextEra Energy received a US$805 million investment from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board to develop a 2GW US portfolio. The company reported notably high revenue in Q3 2022, banking US$1.7 billion and saying that it plans to target a further 2.4GW of assets through the incentives afforded by the Inflation Reduction Act.
