Orange Grove Solar Begins Operations, Brings Renewables Jobs to County

The Orange Grove Solar project, sited on about 920 acres in the Orange Grove area of Jim Wells County, entered commercial operation in mid 2025 and began delivering electricity to the grid in June 2025. At roughly 130 megawatts of capacity and with about 300,000 photovoltaic panels installed, the utility scale installation now feeds clean energy into ERCOT, the regional grid that serves much of Texas.

The project was developed with a commercial arrangement in which AT&T is the off taker under a long term virtual power purchase agreement. Under that agreement the environmental attributes associated with the project are transferred to the off taker. That kind of corporate procurement provides revenue certainty for developers and is an increasingly common mechanism nationwide for locking in renewable output while supporting corporate climate goals.

Locally the project represented a significant construction phase followed by ongoing operations and maintenance work, bringing jobs and contractor activity to the Orange Grove area. The development is now one of the largest renewable energy installations sited in Jim Wells County, and it has become a focal point in local discussions about land use, tax revenues and economic development as the county balances agricultural and energy uses on rural acreage.

From a market perspective the addition of 130 megawatts in ERCOT is modest relative to the overall Texas mix but meaningful at a county level, demonstrating how corporate demand can spur new projects in rural communities. Corporate virtual power purchase agreements are shaping the pipeline for new renewable capacity by creating predictable revenue streams for projects that otherwise would face merchant price risk in wholesale electricity markets.

Long term, the Orange Grove installation exemplifies the trend of larger scale solar projects locating in rural counties where available land and proximity to transmission lines make builds feasible. For Jim Wells County the economic benefits will depend on continued operations hiring, local contracting opportunities and property tax arrangements. As the Texas grid evolves the project will contribute incremental clean generation and offer a case study in how corporate energy procurement intersects with local economic development.