OCI Holdings(010060) will build a 260-megawatt (MW) solar power plant in Texas, where electricity demand is surging as artificial intelligence (AI) data centers expand. The plan is to broaden its business model from developing and selling existing solar plants to directly owning and operating them.
On the 3rd, OCI Holdings said its U.S. subsidiary OCI Energy held a groundbreaking ceremony on the 1st (local time) for the Sun Roper solar power plant, which it is co-developing with Israeli energy company Arava Power. The ceremony was attended by Lee Woo-hyun, OCI Holdings chairman; Saba Bayatli, OCI Energy president; and Ilan Zidkoni, Arava Power chief executive officer (CEO).
The Sun Roper project is to build a 260 MW solar power plant on a site of about 6.93 million square meters in Wharton County, Texas. It is sized to generate electricity for about 60,000 households, with a target to begin commercial operation in 2027.
OCI Energy and Arava Power each hold 50% equity and are co-developing the project. Based on a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) signed in February with a global major corporation, they also secured project financing (PF).
Since 2012, OCI Energy has developed utility-scale solar power projects mainly in Texas and has developed and sold about 2 GW of solar projects to date. Last year, it completed development and sale of a total of 480 MW in solar projects, including Sun Roper 260 MW, Pepper 120 MW, and Lucky 7 100 MW.
It is also expanding its energy storage system (ESS) business. OCI Energy is currently carrying out the Alamo City ESS project at 120 MW and 480 MWh with CPS Energy and LG Energy Solution Vertech.
OCI Energy's secured pipeline of solar and ESS projects now totals 6.3 GW. It consists of 30 projects in total, including 3.1 GW of solar and 3.2 GW of ESS.
OCI Holdings plans to secure 15 GW of development assets and more than 2 GW of operating assets in the United States by 2030. Alongside its existing business of developing and selling solar and ESS projects, it will increase the share of directly owning and operating plants based on long-term PPAs to secure stable cash flow.
OCI Holdings Chairman Lee Woo-hyun said, "With electricity demand rising from AI data centers, solar power continues to grow in the U.S. energy market," adding, "Breaking ground on the Sun Roper project shows that OCI Energy is expanding its direct operations beyond a development-and-sale-centric model and is broadening opportunities to generate new revenue."