How a rural co-op is trading coal for solar, battery storage By EPN Staff A rural Texas electric cooperative plans to convert a coal-fired power plant to a solar and battery storage facility with more than $1.4 billion in federal funding. San Miguel Electric Cooperative announced the funding shortly before Christmas. The cooperative said it would convert a mine-mouth lignite-fired plant to a facility capable of producing 400 megawatts of solar generation with 200 megawatts of battery storage. The new plant will serve 47 Texas counties and virtually eliminate the cooperative’s greenhouse gas emissions, the company’s CEO said in the announcement. The new facility should be operational by 2027, the company said. Why it matters Texas is a top 10 coal-producing state, and much of that is lignite coal, also called brown coal. Lignite is a low-grade coal, with a lower carbon content and more moisture, and it’s generally burned to make electricity at a mine site. It’s also considered dirty coal, and under President Joe Biden the Environmental Protection Agency pushed to close a loophole that allowed higher mercury emissions from lignite facilities. Texas had 15 coal-fired power plants as of 2023, producing 11% of the state’s electricity, according to data published by the state comptroller’s office. The plan is to retire one third of those plants by 2030. Deeper context The funding for San Miguel Electric’s project comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Empowering Rural America program. That program is funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed Congress in 2022 and includes billions in grants, loans and tax incentives meant to clean up and modernize energy infrastructure. The USDA has called the Empowering Rural America program the “the single largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936.” San Miguel General Manager and CEO Craig Courter said the funding “represents a new era for the San Miguel Electric Cooperative, which has long been the backbone of electric generation for generations of South Texans."
