1.2-GW solar project to tie into existing 300-MW coal plant in Texas

A large solar project is being built in Texas, midway between Dallas and Houston, on land that also hosts a working coal plant. The $1.7 billion Big Rooter Power project will add 1.2 gigawatts of solar generation, built in two phases: Big Rooter West (491 megawatts), expected online in August 2028, and Big Rooter East (658 megawatts), starting construction next year and expected online in August 2029. The site, called Twin Oaks, will keep running its existing 310-megawatt coal-fired plant alongside the new solar — there's no plan to retire it.

Once finished, the Twin Oaks complex will have 1.5 gigawatts of combined coal and solar power, plus 20 miles of new high-voltage transmission lines, large-scale battery storage (1.6 gigawatt-hours), and data center capacity being developed on the same 10,000-acre site. The project is expected to create over 800 construction jobs.

For homeowners, this isn't a program you can sign up for or a rebate to chase — it's a utility-scale build that adds power supply to the Texas grid rather than a home energy upgrade. It's worth knowing about mainly as a sign of how much new solar and battery capacity is being added in Texas, often alongside existing fossil fuel plants rather than replacing them, which can affect regional electricity supply and pricing over time.