Southwest USA

Blue Wing Solar Power Project in San Antonio Texas

Just south of Loop 410 on the south side of San Antonio, the largest solar project in Texas is nearing completion. The Blue Wing Solar Project, as it has been named, will eventually supply over 1,800 homes each year.  Below is a photo of the Blue Wing solar energy project south of San Antonio. This large solar panel project is a partnership of Duke Energy, CPS, and Juwi Solar Inc.  The project consists of 214,000 ground mounted First Solar photovoltaic panels mounted in long rows. In addition to the fixed arrays, which span several acres, there are large tilting arrays, such as the one seen below, which track the sun’s rays across the sky for maximum power generation.  I stopped along IH-37, north of Braunig Lake (home to a large natural gas fired power plant), to take a look at CPS’s solar power project and snap the photo below. Currently tours are not available, but hopefully they will be considered by CPS, since such a plant would provide many educational opportunities for school children.

This huge solar energy project along IH-37 in San Antonio will eventually generate 26,570 megawatt hours of electricity each year. Thanks in part to the sunny climate and careful orientation of the solar panels, this will be one of the most efficient photovoltaic solar installations in the United States. Texas is now home to more wind farms and more megawatts of wind energy production than any other state, however solar power, from solar energy projects such as this one have lagged behind the rest of the world.  Cities such as Austin have taken a slightly different approach than the large solar power project south of San Antonio, instead opting to give residents rebates to place solar panels on their roofs. CPS, or City Public Services, is the nation’s largest municipally owned utility, providing gas and electric services to over 700,000 customers.  In addition to sourcing energy from plants such as the IH-37 solar project, CPS is getting wind energy from large wind farms located along the Texas coast, in San Patricio county and along Baffin Bay. In addition to the energy generated by the IH-37 solar power project, CPS will get another 27 megawatts of energy annually from the Tessera Solar project in West Texas.  Much of San Antonio’s power comes from power plants that burn natural gas, so this move toward clean, renewable energy will be good for the environment.

Below is a map of the area where the Blue Wing solar energy projects is located, south of San Antonio and North of Braunig Lake.