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Knippa ISD energizes solar plan

Project set to begin in 2021 after school district agrees to tax limit

The proposed Project SunRay solar farm by OCI Solar, a San Antonio-based energy firm that is planning a 1,900-acre solar farm south and east of Knippa, is one-step closer to beginning construction, following Knippa Independent School District’s board of trustees unanimous vote on Thursday to approve entering into an agreement for limitation on appraised value with OCI.

The board approved the agreement during a special board meeting held on Thursday, where members present include Merlynn Verstuyft, Larissa Rodriguez, Sterling Shimp, Ross Thompson, and Ted Sanderlin. Trustees Alan Klaus and Jimmy Smith were not present for the meeting.

According to the Texas Comptroller, an appraised value limitation is an agreement in which a taxpayer agrees to build or install property and create jobs in exchange for a 10-year limitation on the taxable value for school district maintenance and operations tax purposes.

On Oct. 17, 2019, the district submitted an application for the agreement to the comptroller’s office, which indicates the assessed value of the property will be reduced to $20 million.

James Scott, project manager for OCI Solar, said the exact start date is yet to be determined but it will be in 2021. He said there are some remaining tasks to be completed before construction begins, including some work toward the interconnection process, where the plant will connect to the electrical grid, but he feels confident they are on target for launching the project.

In a previous interview, Scott said that once operational, Project SunRay will be OCI Solar Power’s largest single project. To date, their largest is in Pecos County on 1,250 acres of land, and has a 110.20 megawatt capacity. He said the solar power generated from this project will flow to the electrical grid via existing transmission lines situated immediately adjacent to the project site.

OCI Solar Power is currently seeking one or more customers for the power generated from Project Sunray.

“Customers typically include electrical cooperatives, municipal electric utilities, retail providers or large corporate and industrial consumers,” Scott said.

A 200 MW project, Scott said, could typically generate enough electricity to power approximately 42,000 homes.

OCI Solar Power also constructed the 2,500-acre solar farm located east of Uvalde’s Garner Field Airport. It was later sold to Consolidated Edison.

According to the OCI Solar Power website, the 95.0 MW project services 21,375 homes using 378,000 modules on 9,000 dual-axis trackers. Commercial operation of this solar farm began in December of 2015