24-02-2025
OCI Holdings partners with Arava Power to build 260MW solar farm in Texas
US Inflation Reduction Act, energy community bonus expected to return up to 40 percent of investment to involved companies
OCI Holdings said Monday that its United States subsidiary OCI Energy has teamed up with Arava Power, an Israeli solar energy firm, to build a 260 megawatt solar power plant in Wharton County, Texas.
According to the announcement, each side will contribute 50 percent into the project named Sun Roper, which is expected to begin construction later this year and be complete by the end of next year. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
The Sun Roper project will cover an area of about 6.93 million square meters and produce enough electricity to power approximately 60,000 households per day.
OCI Holdings explained that the Sun Roper project is estimated to result in high profitability as it can receive up to 40 percent of its investment back. The US government's Inflation Reduction Act supports investment tax credits of about 30 percent with an added 10 percent expected from the energy community bonus.
The Sun Roper project marks the latest collaboration between OCI Energy and Arava Power as they continue to build on a partnership that began when the former sold project Sun Ray, a 200 MW solar farm in Uvalde County, Texas, to the latter in 2021.
'OCI Energy has established itself as the leading solar power developer in Texas, currently holding a 15 percent market share,' said Lee Woo-hyun, chairman of OCI Holdings.
'This year, we plan to expand our solar business beyond Texas to create new revenue streams."
OCI Energy has continued to invest in the North American utility-scale solar and energy storage system markets since 2011. The Korean energy company currently operates over 10 solar power and ESS project pipelines, which totals about 5.2 gigawatt in energy capacity.
