SB Energy Global’s Orion I, Orion II and Orion III solar projects (Orion Solar Belt), located in Milam County, Texas, have reached commercial operation.
The projects total 875 MW and utilize 1.3 million modules, manufactured by First Solar at its Perrysburg, Ohio, facility. The 22,800 tons of structural steel for the project is sourced from Gerdau steel mills located in Midlothian, Texas, and Cartersville, Ga. The projects include Nextracker smart solar trackers. SB Energy selected Blattner to provide the EPC services for the project. Most of the steel for the Orion Solar Belt was sourced from Gerdau’s steel mill, located in Midlothian.
Company leadership was joined by U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, state and local officials, suppliers, anchor customer Google and investors to celebrate the milestone.
“When it comes to actualizing American jobs and providing power to the world’s largest energy users, SB Energy is committed to creating the roadmap,” says Rich Hossfeld, SB Energy co-CEO.
“We are thankful for the support from Secretary Jennifer Granholm and the many federal, local and statewide leaders, as well as Google. We hope the Orion Solar Belt serves as a catalyst for growing investments in a robust American-made supply chain for solar.”
SB Energy’s projects are delivering electricity to the Texas grid and helping power Google’s data centers in Ellis County and its Dallas cloud region.
