Current Intermittent Energy Projects in Van Zandt County Tx

This was a 1000+ acre project that would have put over 450,000 solar panels on active ranch land in SW Van Zandt County. Neighbors, landowners, ranchers and citizens of the county banded together and pressured the cancellation of this project.

Built near the community of Ben Wheeler, this is the first solar facility built in Van Zandt County. It is a small project but still took up hundreds of productive acres. In 2023 it was damaged in one of East Texas' typical hailstorms. In that same year at least 75 calls were received due to fires in the panels. In 2024 one fire spread to adjacent pastureland.

Glen Pine Solar is planned for the area East of FM 47 and South of I20 and is a 600+ acre project. Besides the destruction to the prime ranch land, this project also includes a large Lithium Battery storage facility. A runaway fire in this storage unit could threaten the occupied homes in the area. Fortunately this project keeps getting delayed and now is not planned for production until 2025.

A Lithium Battery storage facility is being built by Taaleri Energia (Finland) at FM47 and FM1651. This project is scheduled for production in 2025. $40M of the project is from taxpayers. This project will buy electricity at a low price from the grid and turn around and sell it back to the grid at much higher prices, increasing your electricity costs and covering for unreliable Wind and Solar.

A Lithium Battery storage facility is planned for the North Van Zandt County area with the exact location unknown at the moment. This will be a large (203.81MW) facility. More details when available.

A Lithium Battery storage facility is planned near VZCR 1110 east of VZCR 1111. This will be a mid-sized (153.72MW) facility. It is being built by UR-Silo DevCo LLC. More details when available.

A Lithium Battery storage facility is planned in Ben Wheeler at the location of the BT Kellum Solar facility. This will be a mid-sized (153.69MW) facility. It is being built by UR-Silo DevCo LLC. More details when available.

A Lithium Battery storage facility is planned near FM16 west of VZCR 1512. This will be a mid-sized (125.65MW) facility. It is being built by Van BT Storage LLC. More details when available.

A Lithium Battery storage facility is planned near VZCR 3601 North of Hwy 80. This will be a small (100.3MW) facility. It is being built by Tempus Power Management LLC. More details when available.

An industrial wind facility is planned for Pct2 from Phalba north to FM 3227. The exact size of this project is not known at the moment. It is being built by ACEDev for AES. More details when available.

Goldfinch Solar is planned for West of FM 751 and South of VZCR 3816. This project is for 150.54MW of industrial solar panels and also includes a 100.44MW Lithium Battery storage facility. This project is being built by BT DJ4M Solar LLC and its parent company built the fire-ridden BT Kellum facility in Ben Wheeler.

Other projects are planned and as we have additional information we will post it here. There is another solar and battery project in planning for Pct3 just east of the Goldfinch project. It is being planned by RWE Renewables. 

There is also another potential solar facility in the works for the Whitton area being developed by OCI Energy.