National Grid Renewables began construction on its Copperhead Solar & Storage Project, a 150 MW solar and 100 MWh storage project in Falls County, Texas.
National Grid Renewables also announced a 140MW power purchase agreement (PPA) with The Hershey Co. for Copperhead, marking the second PPA between Hershey and National Grid Renewables following the announcement of Hershey’s Noble Solar PPA in 2021. .
Edison Energy, a global sustainability and energy consultancy, worked with Hershey on its environmental initiatives and Copperhead’s selection of National Grid Renewables.
“Together with customers like The Hershey Co., National Grid Renewables is helping to build a clean, equitable and affordable energy future,” said Blake Nixon, president of National Grid Renewables. “Projects like Copperhead promote sustainability and economic vitality globally and locally. Communities like those in Falls County, Texas can anticipate economic benefits for years to come from hosting renewable energy projects. With Copperhead, our commitment to the State of Texas and the ERCOT market remains strong, and we look forward to bringing this project into commercial operation for the benefit of local residents and the entire state.
“We have ambitious targets to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by more than 50% and Scope 3 emissions by 25% by 2030 as part of our science targets,” says Mark Kline, Director of Commodity and Specialty Buying at The Hershey. Co. “We are making great strides towards achieving these goals through projects like Copperhead and the great work of National Grid Renewables.”
Copperhead will use next-generation 6-series thin-film solar modules developed and produced by First Solar Inc. and a 100 MWh Fluence Gridstack battery energy storage system by Fluence Energy Inc. The project is being built by TIC– The Industrial Co., a subsidiary of Kiewit and an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor.