As the environmental toll of data centers becomes a growing concern across the country, one industry could make them more palatable long term: solar.
On July 14, Cypress Creek Solar broke ground on what is now the largest solar farm in the United States. Under construction on 11,000 acres of former farmland near Wilson, Ark., Steel River Energy Center will soon grow a crop of 3 million solar panels — enough to power more than 315,000 homes annually.
But Cypress Creek CEO Kevin Smith says two other facets of the project are helping with the sales pitch for more solar. First is a purchasing agreement with Google's new data center in West Memphis. The tech company has committed to acquiring 100 percent of its energy needs from solar, via Entergy Arkansas, the major power provider for the eastern part of the state.
Second, Steel River will be built with American-made solar panels using steel coils and mounting structures manufactured by Big River Steel Works and PACO Steel and Engineering, both located in Mississippi County, Ark.
With a projected completion date of 2029, the project is expected to create approximately 700 construction jobs in each of its phases, and generate an estimated $300 million in local tax revenue.
Smith spoke with WKNO's Christopher Blank about the project and the
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): First of all, there's probably no bigger environmental issue in America right now than the impact of new data centers. Google is building one in West Memphis. But from the outset, there's been a plan to provide Google with power, or at least resources, from this solar farm. How does this work?
KEVIN SMITH: In reality, our project connects into the Entergy Arkansas grid. So we're a grid-connected facility, not necessarily direct to the data center. And then the data center will take its power off the grid also from from Entergy.
BLANK: And about how much power can the solar farm provide to Google?
SMITH: The project is actually a three-phase project, which is around 2.5 gigawatts total and 2.9 GW hours of battery storage. That 2.5 GW is about enough power to power around 300,000 Arkansas homes. So that's about 10% of the population of Arkansas. On a US scale, this is really the largest solar project in the US to date that's gone into construction.
BLANK: The Trump Administration has not been a big cheerleader for renewable energy. Do you think the negative opinion of data centers is putting political pressure on state or local governments to get behind solar in a bigger way?
SMITH: I think maybe the biggest pressure is affordability issues. Solar is really the cheapest form of energy, the least expensive form of energy that's available. So in my view, the pressure is really from an affordability standpoint. With Americans struggling to pay their utility bills, it just makes sense that you should proceed with the cheapest source of energy supply, which is is solar. What's interesting is that if you look at the data over the last several years, the vast majority of new solar, probably 60-to-70%, has has been in red states, Republican states. I mean, Texas is a huge market for solar, as well. You know, obviously we're building the largest project in the US in Arkansas. So you're seeing significant solar going in states that a few years ago weren't promoting solar so much, and now because of the cost advantages of utilizing solar, it's becoming more and more popular.
BLANK: So I'm one of those people who is always thinking, why don't we just add solar panels over highway medians or big sprawling parking lots? I'm sure you've heard all these ideas. So burst my bubble here. Tell me what's holding back real integration of solar into, say, urban landscapes rather than just big open fields?
SMITH: It's price. It's all about pricing. This facility: the first two phases will have upwards to 3 million panels. There's a place and a use for, you know, rooftop solar and parking lot solar. It's smaller scale. It's more expensive to install. If you put 30 or 40 solar panels on your roof, you know, the electricity that's generated might be triple the cost of what it is to do a large ground-mount system. So it's really about costs. I mean, you don't see small nuclear plants and small natural gas-fired plants and small coal plants. There's no economies of scale on that. So the same is for solar projects as well.
BLANK: Well, finally, one of the biggest selling points your company is making is the impact on jobs and local manufacturing. If we set aside the environmental goodness of renewable energy, how do you make the economic case for bringing a big solar project to a new area?
SMITH: I like that you raised the climate friendliness of renewable energy. I mean, a decade ago, that was the sales pitch: we need to solve the climate change issue. Obviously, that's still a problem. But the renewable energy industry and solar has progressed to the point now where that's not the main argument. The main argument is really affordability issues, the cheapest source of energy, and job creation. So the solar-plus-battery storage industry is upwards to 500,000 jobs. The coal industry employs around 50,000. So it's a relatively minor employer. When you look at our Steel River project, it's kind of a showcase for American manufacturing. The structural steel is 100% coming from US manufacturers. And what's interesting is Mississippi County, Arkansas is really the largest steel producing county in the nation, and the vast majority of the steel will actually be coming from Big River Steel in the coil process, and then the structural steel will be stamped out by PACO Steel. Both of them located in Mississippi County. It's a huge job creator and what's interesting is that the solar industry, because we're generating electricity without having to burn an expensive limited fuel, it requires more labor -- more labor to manufacture, more labor for construction. And so it creates more jobs than can be created in conventional energy.
