RENEWABLE ENERGY
Construction recently began on what will become the largest solar facility in the US. The Steel River Energy Center, located in Mississippi County, Arkansas, is being developed by Cypress Creek Energy, with Google acting as both the anchor investor and offtaker – meaning the tech giant has committed to buying the power the project will generate.
When the project is completed in 2029, Google expects it will be capable of generating 2.5GW at peak performance, while it will also add 2.9GWh of new energy storage capacity.
As things stand, the US’ s largest active solar farm – the Gemini Solar Project in Nevada – has a capacity of 966MW at peak performance.
“ We reached a milestone in Google’ s global clean energy portfolio: we’ re purchasing power from our largest solar and storage facility to date,” says Michael Terrell, Google’ s Global Head of Advanced Energy.”
“ Steel River Energy Center will also be the largest solar project in the US once fully operational.”
Built on American steel Perhaps what distinguishes Steel River most from other solar projects is its supply chain. Mississippi County is the largest steel producing county in the country and the project will be built entirely from structural steel made in the state. The steel is being sourced from US Steel’ s Big River facility nearby,
The Steel River‘ ground breaking’ ceremony WATCH NOW
Accelerating the clean energy transition – Google
while it will also be manufactured at PACO Steel’ s plant about 20 miles downstream of the Mississippi River.
Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’ s Global Head of Data Centre Energy, says the choice of location can be put down to Mississippi County’ s leadership in steel production. She also spoke
116 September 2026