This Texas coal mine will soon be home to a 1.2GW solar farm

A big solar and battery project is breaking ground in Bremond, Texas, between Dallas and Houston. The $1.7 billion Big Rooter Power development, built by the investment firm Panamint Capital, will place a 1.2-gigawatt solar farm and 1.6 gigawatt-hours of battery storage on land next to an existing coal mine and coal-fired power plant. Both the mine and plant will keep running. The first phase, 491 megawatts, is due online in August 2028, with the remaining 658 megawatts following in 2029.

This is part of a small but growing trend of building solar on old or active coal sites, since that land often draws less local opposition than farmland. Similar projects have gone up on former mines in Illinois, Kentucky, and Louisiana. Federal tax incentives helped push these projects forward, though recent federal policy changes have scaled back some of that support and canceled at least one mine-land solar grant. Panamint says it locked in its incentives before those changes took effect, including a tax credit covering half the project's cost, partly because the site qualifies as an "energy community," a designation for land affected by coal plant or mine closures.

For homeowners, this project itself does not create a rebate or program you can apply for. It mainly reflects the broader shift in Texas, where solar is now generating more electricity than coal, helping meet rising power demand from air conditioning, data centers, and other users on the state's grid.