One of North America’s biggest coal-site solar projects is now under construction in Texas – but the coal plant next door isn’t going anywhere. Here’s why.
Panamint Capital has broken ground on Big Rooter Power, a $1.7 billion solar project at its Twin Oaks power station in Robertson County, roughly halfway between Dallas and Houston. At 1.2 GWdc, Panamint says it will be the largest solar farm built at an existing coal mining site in North America.
But this isn’t a coal-to-solar conversion. Twin Oaks includes a 310 MW lignite-fired power plant near Bremond, and no plans have been announced to retire it. The company still lists Twin Oaks as an operating coal power station.
Texas solar + coal = Big Rooter
Big Rooter will be built in two phases. Construction has started on the 491 MWdc Big Rooter West, which is expected to come online in August 2028.
The 658 MWdc Big Rooter East is scheduled to break ground in December 2026 and come online in August 2029. Together, the two phases are expected to create more than 800 construction jobs.
Panamint estimates that Big Rooter West will contribute more than $66 million to the local economy over its lifetime, with an emphasis on hiring local workers and using regional vendors.
Once Big Rooter is complete, the 10,000-acre Twin Oaks complex will have around 1.5 GW of coal and solar generation. Panamint is also developing more than 20 miles of new 345 kV transmission, 1.6 GWh of battery storage, and 790 MW of data center capacity at the site.
“Big Rooter Power represents our vision for getting more out of America’s energy infrastructure and ensuring America’s energy dominance,” said Panamint CEO Apolka Totth.
2 million US-made solar panels
SOLV Energy will handle engineering, procurement, and construction, including the solar arrays, substation, and transmission infrastructure.
First Solar will supply around 2 million solar panels manufactured at its factories in Ohio, Louisiana, and Alabama. Nextpower will provide its NX Horizon tracking systems, which tilt the panels throughout the day to follow the sun. The project will also use more than 34,000 tons of US-made steel.
Panamint says it has signed a long-term power purchase agreement with a “single investment-grade offtaker,” but it hasn’t named the buyer. The contract is expected to run into the 2050s.
Big Rooter is a huge solar build, but Panamint isn’t replacing the site’s coal generation with renewables. It’s packing solar, coal, battery storage, transmission, and data centers onto the same property as electricity demand in Texas continues to climb.
According to JLL‘s data center outlook, Texas is one of the fastest-growing US data center regions in the US, with growth concentrated around Dallas-Fort Worth.
Power supply on the ERCOT grid is the main growth constraint for the data center industry in “all of the above” Texas.
Read more: Texas adds another huge solar farm as ERCOT grid demand soars
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