What are these projects?

Solar "Farms" are not really farms at all. They are industrial power generation facilities consisting of typically hundreds of thousands of solar panels. These panels require enormous amounts of fossil fuel to create, earth scarring mining for many of the materials, and have a limited lifespan. Panels consist of plastic, heavy metals (most are toxic), silicon (not the kind made of beach sand, but refined quartz that can be environmentally unfriendly), and other materials. Because of their design, they are not cost effective to recycle, so will end up in a landfill. Installation of all these panels convert land that is normally in agricultural use (environmentally friendly) into vast fields that generate excess heat, are not friendly to local wildlife, can damage the underlying soil and water system, exasperate firefighting if a fire starts in or near one, and if damaged can release toxic materials. In effect, they do the opposite for the environment than what the say.  

When connected to the power grid, industrial solar facilities can bring instability to the grid itself because of their intermittent production of energy - typically producing power when not needed, but unable to produce power when most critical. Because of this, other more reliable energy sources must pick up the slack and typically higher costs, creating financial instability for both grid operators and consumers. ERCOT actually classifies Wind and Solar as "intermittent forms of energy".

Like Solar, Wind Farms are also not farms at all. They too are industrial power generation facilities that intermittently produce energy. The materials for a standard windmill require a significant amount of fossil fuels to create, their gear boxes are full of oil, and when a windmill or even a blade breaks, the materials are sent off to the landfill.

Unlike solar, the footprint for a standard wind facility is much larger - typically 5,000 to 15,000 acres.  On that land are structures 300' feet tall with blades over 164' each  and red blinking lights on them. You can't miss them even if your  property is not next to the leased property. This makes them stressful to cattle and dangerous to birds. They are not environmentally friendly.

The kind of Lithium Mining proposed for East Texas isn't really mining at all. Companies want to come into an area, drill a well to a depth where brine is located (well below the aquifer level), extract that brine liquid, subject it to heat, water (from the aquifer) and possibly other chemicals and then extract what little lithium is trapped in the brine solution. Then, the remaining liquid - which is no longer in its original state - is injected into another well far enough away as to not dilute the brine being extracted.

There are several major issues with this. First, brine can be very toxic to soil. Areas of a brine spill can be devastated for 50+ years. People will argue that drilling wells for brine is no different than drilling for oil. This is not true. The viscosity of brine is much lower than oil, so a brine spill will seep into the soil at a much faster and deeper rate making it much harder to remediate the damage. Also, a drilling failure in or in the vicinity of the depth of our aquifer can cause serious if not devastating contamination. Again, with the the low viscosity of brine, it can mix with the fresh water in an aquifer much easier than oil.

More concerning is that the technology planned for East Texas Lithium mining is only in the test phase by the company in Arkansas proposing it. This, along with the Texas Legislature passing a recent bill that creates issues on regulation between the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Railroad Commission, has created a potential perfect storm that these Lithium miners will exploit.

BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems) are the result of Wind and Solar systems destabilization of the electric grid. They consist of up to several hundred boxcar sized containers filled with thousands of lithium batteries. The batteries are charged by either the electric grid, which is considered a standalone-system, or they are located in wind or solar facilities and charged from those devices.

When wind and solar are not producing during peak hours and the grid is strained, the BESS facilities release their power back to the grid for 1-2 hours, charging the grid operator (and thus, you) very high rates. Regular grid strain did not occur before wind and solar were introduced to the system, So, this is a manufactured problem paid for by taxpayers.

BESS facilities can, and have caught on fire releasing toxic and explosive gases and the damaged Lithium Batteries can then expose their toxic heavy metals.