Renewable Energy Ban Too Late To Stop Oklahoma Solar Projects

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Alarms have been sounded over the future of renewable energy development in Oklahoma, where a movement is afoot to impose a total ban on new wind and solar power projects throughout the state. Like it or not, though, Oklahoma has already emerged as a clean energy ambassador for the rest of the US, a role that is beginning to heat up in new directions.

More Renewable Energy For Oklahoma

Oklahoma already has one foot firmly in the renewable energy industry. The state quickly became a leading hotspot for wind development in the early 2000s and it still ranks right up there at #3 in a 50-state ranking of installed wind capacity, at 12,648 megawatts as of last April. Among forthcoming projects is a 241-megawatt wind farm under the umbrella of the firm RWE. The utility SWEPCO is also moving forward with construction of a 598-megawatt project, to be operational by the end of this year.

Take wind out of the state’s renewable energy sails, though, and the picture dims. The US Solar Energy Industry Association puts Oklahoma down at #40 for solar development, with just a hair over 376 megawatts’ worth of installed capacity as of Q3 2024.

Still, 376 megawatts is a significant leap up from just one year earlier, when the state had only 46 megawatts under its belt. SEIA projects that the Oklahoma solar industry will continue to experience outsized growth in the near term, with the state moving up to #30 over the next five years.

Renewable Energy & Data Centers

One factor driving the sharp upswing in Oklahoma’s solar profile is the data center boom. In the latest development, earlier this week the Texas-based firm Leeward Renewable Energy recapped its plans to develop more than 700 megawatts’ worth of solar energy capacity from three new solar farms, some of which is already spoken for by Google through long term power purchases.

One project alone will more than double the state’s installed solar capacity practically overnight, consisting of  a three-array portfolio totaling 372 megawatts in Mayes County. All three are located near a Google data center in Pryor. Two other projects located in the southern part of the state will bring the total to 724 megawatts (AC).

LRE expects the projects to provide grid-wide benefits to ratepayers in Oklahoma, not just Google, partly through a transmission collaboration with the Grand River Dam Authority.

“The addition of more than 700 MWac of new solar resources at carefully chosen locations will enable more efficient utilization of the regional transmission network and enhance grid resilience while also directly enabling customer expansion,” LRE noted in a press statement earlier this week.

“In a time of growing electricity demand to power our overall economy, these solar projects provide a very tangible and real solution,” they added, which sounds like a not-so-subtle poke at the competition for data center energy procurement. Nuclear advocates, for example, have been trying to horn in on the data center action, in addition to coal and gas stakeholders.

Renewable Energy & The Power Of Power Purchase Agreements

For those of you new to the topic, power purchase agreements have been supporting the renewable energy boom in the US since the early 2000s.  They were authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, enabling developers to lock in tax benefits and financial commitments from long term off-takers for new energy projects before construction begins.

As a corollary, power purchase agreements also enable energy consumers to procure renewable energy, without having to host a wind or solar project on their own property, and without having to stake an up-front investment.

In the initial years following the authorization of power purchase agreements, developers and off-takers had to re-invent the wheel with each transaction. This cumbersome and expensive process soon gave way to new systems that make PPA’s more accessible to both parties. Back in 2018, for example, CleanTechnica took note of a power purchase agreement system developed by the startup LevelTen Energy, aimed at aggregating demand for small scale off-takers.

Even though a red hot movement against renewable energy has been kicking up in two dozen or so states, LevelTen has been awfully busy since then, and they are about to get busier.

In March of 2023, LevelTen and Google launched a new partnership aimed at slashing 80% of the time spent on executing PPAs. “Public officials in more than 20 states have been kicking up a regular haboob over the evils of ‘woke capital,’ by which they mean to thwart clean energy investment,” CleanTechnica reported. “Meanwhile, Google has just sneaked right up and pulled the rug out from under them.”

You can say that again. Google’s new power purchase agreements with LRE in Oklahoma were executed under  LevelTen Energy’s new “Accelerated Process” (LEAP for short), developed by LevelTen and Google.

“These power purchase agreements demonstrate how our scalable procurement approach is transforming the acquisition of clean energy and accelerating the development of carbon-free energy sources,” Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s Global Head of Data Center Energy, emphasizes.

Oklahoma Accelerates The Energy Transition All Over The USA

Between its wind industry and its fossil energy industries, Oklahoma has already staked out a mammoth-sized claim on US energy production, storage, and transportation. As an early showcase for the LEAP power purchase collaboration, the state is now onto the next level, demonstrating that renewable energy can achieve the kind of rapid turnaround needed to support surging growth in electricity demand while supporting grid-wide reliability improvements.

The Grand River Dam Authority, for one, is all for it. “Google’s support for these solar projects in Oklahoma is a testament to their commitment to help meet the state’s growing energy needs with secure, sustainable solutions.” explains GRDA EVP John Wiscaver.

“Google is a valuable partner to GRDA, and we look forward to helping them meet their future power needs while continuing to foster economic growth in the GRDA communities of Northeast Oklahoma,” Wiscaver added.

Meanwhile, state officials are also celebrating Oklahoma’s new role as a centerpiece of the US solar industry supply chain. Last summer, the state nailed down an economic development deal for a new $620 million, 5-gigawatt silicon ingot and solar wafer factory. Located at Tulsa International Airport, the new factory is another example of rapid turnaround for renewable energy projects.

“Production is anticipated to come online in 2026, making the Oklahoma facility among the first in the United States to produce high-performing silicon ingots and wafers, currently the biggest bottleneck in achieving a fully domestic solar supply chain,” enthused the Oklahoma Department of Aeronautics and Aerospace in a press statement.

Against this backdrop, the news organization HeatMap has been following activities at the state capitol, where activists have been rallying support for a statewide ban on renewable energy development. HeatMap notes that wind and solar stakeholders are not the only targets. Oklahoma’s potential role as an A-list green hydrogen producer could also be in jeopardy, and that draws the powerful fertilizer industry into the line of fire.

Take the leading fertilizer firm CF Industries. CF already has a foot in the green hydrogen door through its Donaldson facility in Louisiana, and it has proposed a green ammonia project for Oklahoma, too. The proposal involves 450 megawatts’ worth of renewable energy to produce green hydrogen (ammonia consists of three parts hydrogen, one part nitrogen).

The CF plan hit a speed bump last year when the Energy Department declined to include the project for funding under the “Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs” program, but last spring Oklahoma officials indicated that new state legislation could help fill the gap, so stay tuned for more on that.

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Photo (cropped): The sun has yet to set on wind and solar development in Oklahoma, despite looming concerns over a statewide ban (courtesy of Leeward Renewable Energy).