Cloudy early with partial sunshine expected late. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 71F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph..
A mostly clear sky. Low 38F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
Updated: February 21, 2026 @ 1:18 am
February 21, 2026
Nancy White, a Van Zandt County activist and president of the Legislative Energy Action Foundation, speaks during a town hall meeting Tuesday about Nacogdoches County solar farm projects.
Nancy White, a Van Zandt County activist and president of the Legislative Energy Action Foundation, speaks during a town hall meeting Tuesday about Nacogdoches County solar farm projects.
More than 200 people attending a town hall meeting Tuesday asked questions and voiced objections to at least one solar farm project planned for rural Nacogdoches County.
“What do we do to stop this?” one audience member said after seeing news clips of battery storage fires and hearing about environmental and health risks of solar projects described by guest speaker Nancy White, a Van Zandt County activist and president of the Legislative Energy Action Foundation.
“It’s citizen safety; it’s not a matter of stop,” White responded. “At the end of the day, you provide environmental standards and codes under state law, and [the solar project developers] either provide the proof they are meeting it or not.”
ERCOT records as of January show several solar power projects planned in Nacogdoches County. Two of them — Banita Creek Solar and Middlebrook Solar — were purchased in late 2025 by Parliament Energy, a Houston-based company that specializes in developing and operating utility-scale solar projects.
“We had two sites,” said David Waller, construction director representing Parliament Energy at Tuesday’s meeting. “We are no longer doing Middlebrook.”
Banita Creek Solar will move forward on leased property just north of FM 225 and west of Lake Nacogdoches in an area that includes of the Alazan Bayou. No part of the project will be developed in wetland areas, he said.
Battery storage systems, which store excess power for use at peak times, are typically developed alongside solar farms and other renewable energy projects.
Safety concerns surrounding battery storage include frequent and hard-to-extinguish fires, toxic gases, explosions and environmental contamination. In addition, White said, solar and battery projects contain technology and parts from China, which pose a national security threat.
Parliament Energy officials said they are removing battery storage from the plan.
“We bought this project, and it had a battery in part of the development. We did not develop it,” Waller said. “Parliament Solar has never done battery, and we have no plans on doing any.”
The company in 2025 developed a large-scale solar facility in Waller County, about 35 miles northwest of Houston. That project does not currently have battery storage.
But Parliament’s solar-only statement for Nacogdoches contradicts plans on file in ERCOT’s interconnection queue, which tracks proposed utility projects, said Kim Bridgefarmer, an Alazan resident who organized Tuesday’s town hall.
Bridgefarmer has also formed a coalition named Protect Our PineyWoods. The group of more than 300 residents is transitioning from awareness to strategic action, she said.
The immediate priority, Bridgefarmer said, to ensure that — should a battery storage system proceed — safety standards established by the National Fire Protection Association are met. This step was also recommended Tuesday by White.
“Half the battle is knowing, the other half is doing,” White said. “The first steps are determining, ‘Do we have a threat?’”
Final design for the Banita Creek Solar project is not complete, Waller said. When plans are finalized, he said, the company will hold a community meeting to answer residents’ questions.
“Several people have called for the EPA to come out and check on us,” he said. “They’ve been out three times. Everything is permitted. Everything is being followed by the book.”
Nicole Bradford’s email is nicole.bradford@dailysentinel.com.
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