ROBERTSON COUNTY, Texas (KBTX) – Robertson County will soon be home to what developers describe as the largest solar project ever built at an existing coal plant in North America.
Construction began this summer on Big Rooter Power, a $1.7 billion energy project built alongside the current Twin Oaks Power Plant.
Spanning nearly 10,000 acres, the project will feature a 1.2-gigawatt solar farm powered by 2 million panels.
Plans also include a robust 1.6-gigawatt-hour battery storage facility, more than 20 miles of transmission lines, and enough high-tech infrastructure to support a potential future data center.
Designed to feed entirely into the ERCOT grid, the facility’s combined solar and battery output will flow straight to the state’s power network.
The Big Rooter Power project is split into two sections, the west and the east. The western half of the project is scheduled to go online in August 2028, with the east site finishing the following year.
Once complete, the development will be more than 13 times the size of the city of Franklin.
Panamint Capital, the project’s developer, said the project’s scale reflects rising energy demand in Texas.
“You’re having like a major increase in demand with your load growth, and Texas is seeing that,” said Julia Olguin, Panamint Capital Chief Operating Officer.
“It’s important that as developers that we’re out there building these solar generation facilities now in order for us to make sure that we keep the cost low,” Olguin said.
Rather than shutting down the decades-old Twin Oaks coal plant, Panamint Capital is integrating a 1.2-gigawatt solar array directly alongside it.
As Olguin explained, leaning on existing infrastructure avoids environmental disruption.
“We already have a plant that’s been here for years, we have a mine that’s been here for years, so the difference in our philosophy and our vision is that we’re not going out and cutting down trees and destroying land that’s not been repurposed, this is all reclaimed land,” Olguin said.
The 310-megawatt coal plant and new solar generation will operate in tandem for now, combining to output 1.5 gigawatts — enough to power at least 300,000 homes — while extensive on-site battery systems store and sustain that power hours after sunset.
The site reserves 790 megawatts of capacity for a potential data center, though Panamint notes that this portion of the project is not a done deal yet.
“I don’t want to say, yes, we are doing a data center because I don’t know the answer to that yet,” Olguin said. “It is part of our plan, and as we step through this process and as it gets closer, we would be more than happy to let the community know.”
Panamint said studies are underway on how a data center would work on or near the site, which could open within five years.
Plugging in new, clean energy into existing infrastructure speeds up construction, but the long-term lifespan of the coal plant remains uncertain.
“I don’t have a direct answer for that because we are doing quite a bit of cost analysis right now and just kind of seeing where’s the best fit for us to move forward,” Olguin said.
Panamint, however, ensures that current workers will not be left behind.
“It is our goal to keep everybody employed and moving forward and having a future here,” Olguin said.
Big Rooter Power will bring 800 temporary construction jobs, but long-term operation of the solar farm will require a skeleton crew.
According to tax abatement documents KBTX obtained, the contract requires only four full-time jobs. Those four employees also do not have to be residents of Robertson County.
“It’ll be about 5 to 10 people to manage the facility,” Olguin said. “They’re just really low maintenance.”
For some neighbors, the project threatens the rural way of life they moved to Robertson County to find.
Shane Bonnin and his wife bought 50 acres off FM 46 about three years ago.
“We just fell in love with it; we fell in love with the people, the land… beautiful land,” Bonnin said.
It was supposed to be their forever home. Instead, their wide-open horizon is about to become a sea of solar panels.
“It’s going to be right there, looking at us,” Bonnin said. “It is a huge, huge project… and they are putting panels on every inch of land they can find.”
The acreage behind the Bonnins’ property was previously mined for coal, but mining operations moved away years ago, and the land was reclaimed.
“And just when they were moving down, and we were getting some peace and fixing to plant the trees back, and the wildlife was really coming back strong… That’s when we found out,” Bonnin said.
A “for sale” sign now sits in front of the Bonnins’ home. Shane said potential buyers have backed out after learning about the project.
“Everybody drives by and loves the house, and they say, ‘We love what y’all have done out there, we love it,’ but now that this project’s coming in, they’re like, ‘We are so sorry, you’re not going to be able to sell that place, nobody is going to buy it,’ and that’s unless I come down a third of what it’s worth and we just can’t do that,” Bonnin said.
The Bonnins are not the only ones being impacted.
A neighboring home’s front door will sit about 150 feet from where the first row of solar panels will be placed.
“The dust is going to be so bad for them. I mean it’s just going to be horrible for them,” Bonnin said.
Bonnin said county leaders did not adequately inform the community about where exactly the project would be located, and now they are paying the price.
“There was very little transparency at all,” Bonnin said.
Panamint Capital agreed to remove a nearby construction entrance and plant vegetation buffers but did not agree to buy the Bonnins’ home.
With more potential projects on the horizon, Shane worries about rural Robertson County’s future.
“People can do what they want on their land, but we don’t need to give them the incentives to come to do these types of projects because once you give one, it’s a floodgate. They all follow,” Bonnin said.
Robertson County leaders agreed to a 10-year, 100% property tax break under Chapter 312 tax abatement rules on all new equipment built at the site.
In exchange, Panamint agreed to annual payments in lieu of taxes, known as PILOT payments.
The deal has sparked financial scrutiny over the projected revenue gap.
County officials estimate that standard, unabated property taxes would have yielded between $25 million and $30 million over the 10-year span.
By contrast, the contract guarantees the county just over $13 million. Even if operations scale up to full capacity—pushing the guaranteed figure closer to $17 million, plus an additional $2 million in land taxes for a $19 million total—the agreement still results in a $6 million to $11 million discount compared to standard taxation.
And County Judge Joe David Scarpinato said the project was coming regardless of the deal.
“They were coming no matter what we did, and that’s the reason why we didn’t get as many protections in place that we wanted… We got what we could get,” Scarpinato said.
Scarpinato said the agreement provides 10 years of budget predictability and avoids potential tax court battles over appraisal value protests.
“For these purposes we are not using it for an incentive; we are using it for, kind of, control,” Scarpinato said.
Scarpinato said the deal was the best option available because Texas counties have no zoning authority.
“Counties don’t have any control to regulate; this is the only regulatory tool we have for these projects. I don’t think it’s fair… And you’ve got several counties banding together sending resolutions in to our legislature, senators, anybody, ERCOT, asking for more control,” Scarpinato said.
Scarpinato said locking in cash payments protects the county against the depreciation of solar equipment as coal revenue winds down.
The contract requires four full-time jobs, basic road repairs and a $200,000 road deposit.
The tax abatement agreement includes no protections for residents living near the project.
Documents obtained by KBTX include a heavily redacted map of the project’s reinvestment zones, making it difficult to determine where exactly the facilities will be located.
Scarpinato admitted that the county did not know the exact project boundaries upfront before approving the deal, and now some residents are facing visual impacts without protections in place.
“We don’t take that lightly, and we understand why they are upset,” Scarpinato said.
Now the county is relying on company promises to build vegetation buffers and landscaping.
Scarpinato said relying on a verbal agreement was a mistake the county will not make again.
“That’s some of the things we couldn’t get up front with them… they were dead set on what they wanted to do. We’re gonna dig our feet in and get some protections for the neighboring properties,” Scarpinato said. “They’ve been a good neighbor for 40 years… We were hoping they would step up and abide by what we asked… and we learned, no, you gotta get it in writing.”
Scarpinato said the county held the legally required public meetings for the project, but acknowledged more could have been done to advertise those meetings to the community.
“Everything that we needed to do was posted properly; it’s just… Maybe they wanted it posted on Facebook… I don’t know… But we are going to consider that as we move forward with any new projects… Getting the information out,” Scarpinato said.
He said in the future, he plans to require developers to host town halls to handle community outreach themselves.
“Getting the developer to take the brunt of the heat because you know some of these projects aren’t popular and … make them do their groundwork informing the public to help the county out,” Scarpinato said.
A future data center, which could be built within five years, would draw more than double the power the Twin Oaks coal plant currently produces.
“That’s why we want to get in front of it… So we can do what we can do to protect the county,” Scarpinato said.
Scarpinato said Panamint did not disclose plans for a data center during tax negotiations, and the county is now preparing for that possibility.
“It is a benefit to the tax base… But at the same time… where are they going to put it, what is it going to be next to? And hopefully we got the team in place with the consultant we’ve hired, we’ve got attorneys on board… that give us those protections going forward,” Scarpinato said.
Some residents have raised questions and concerns about the wildlife being affected by the expansive solar farm.
When KBTX asked Panamint about the environmental impact, we were told animals find a way to adapt to the industrial equipment.
“You’re probably going to get a kick at how they like to relax underneath the solar panels,” Olguin said.
Panamint Capital estimates Big Rooter West alone will generate 66 million dollars for Robertson County and local school districts over its full operating lifespan.
Panamint said they will continue to work with landowners to address their needs, including vegetation buffers, road adjustments, and other project-related considerations.
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