From Coal to Solar: Treaty Oak’s 100-Megawatt Project Rises Near Retiring Plant

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It’s no news flash that Treaty Oak Clean Energy LLC is building a 100-megawatt solar power array in southeastern Grant County. But did you realize that the 1,033-acre site is near a coal-burning power plant set to retire?

“Yes, the White Bluff plant is nearby,” Treaty Oak CEO Christopher Elrod told Whispers last week.

White Bluff is one of two coal plants that Entergy Arkansas co-owns and plans to retire by the end of 2030. The other is the Independence plant near Newark. Treaty Oak would like to help replace some of that lost generation.

“We would very much welcome the opportunity to support them in finding ways to deliver electrons,” Elrod said. “We do solar and battery storage, and we could come up with a comprehensive solution. Maybe it’s solar plus a little bit of battery that we could plug into one of those retiring coal plant interconnection points. It would make a lot of sense for grid reliability, and it would be a very affordable option for ratepayers if they’re able to repurpose those interconnections.”

Treaty Oak held a ceremonial groundbreaking in Grant County last week, and it plans to interconnect via Entergy to put power into the Midwest Independent System Operator grid by about this time next year.

Primoris Renewable Energy of Dallas is heading up construction, which will bring about 200 jobs to the Sheridan area. “We’ve got a lot of projects in Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina that we’re developing right now, but we’re very keen that this is our first to break ground,” Elrod said. “This is all about investing in these communities for the long term. And we’re committed to both local skilled and craft labor and using Arkansas-made materials.” Steel for the array’s tracking system, for example, is coming from Big River Steel in Osceola.

“We are looking forward to building and maintaining a good relationship with local governments and local stakeholders,” Elrod said. “This is all about investing in these communities for the long term. We own and operate these projects for 40 years.”