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.

There are other projects planned for the area. As we get more details we will post them here. Some projects Include:

• 2 Other Solar projects 
• Large Wind Project in Whitton by AES
• 5 other BESS projects.