Sheep And Texas Sun

Enel North America and Mars Inc., a pet care, snack, and food company, have completed a major power purchase agreement (PPA) transaction involving the full output of three solar plants in Texas. The three agreements represent Enel’s largest corporate PPA transaction worldwide. Combined, the agreements represent 851 MWac and are expected to yield 1.8 TWh of electricity each year.

“As we celebrate 25 years in North America, Enel marks a milestone with one of the largest corporate PPA transactions on the US market — nearly 2 terawatt-hours annually, equivalent to the electricity needed to power 150,000 homes,” said Michele Di Murro, chief executive officer of Enel North America. “This deal reinforces our commitment to decarbonization and shows how renewables are among the fastest and most affordable solutions to meet the nation’s energy needs. Through these agreements, we’re adding clean capacity to the Texas grid while supporting a leading manufacturer’s sustainability goals.”

“Many large companies are well on their way to sourcing renewable electricity for their own operations, but that’s just a part of the picture,” said Kevin Rabinovitch, global vice president of sustainability at Mars.“For Mars, Renewable Acceleration is a performance accelerator, cutting emissions at a scale and speed we could never achieve through traditional value chain engagement approaches. It lets us bring demand for all the electricity used in our value chain to the clean energy market in a highly efficient manner. The more demand we create together, the faster we can build the future we all want. And clean energy means cleaner air for our communities, our people, our partners.”

Vegetation at all three sites will be managed through sheep grazing, a sustainable dual-use solar practice that Enel expanded through the largest solar grazing agreement signed in the United States. In August 2024, Enel North America announced the deployment of over 6000 sheep to control vegetation at eight Texas solar plants. The company partnered with Texas Solar Sheep Co., a family business that provides vegetation management at large solar plants, in a commitment to scale up sustainable practices in renewables.

Texas Solar Sheep will deploy over 6000 sheep to graze on more than 10,100 acres (4087 ha) of solar land, nearly 75% of the area of Manhattan. This is one the most significant single contracts for dual-use solar, according to the American Solar Grazing Association, who estimates that 100,000 acres (40,469 ha) of solar sites are being grazed in the US per a recent survey. By embracing sheep grazing, Enel reinforces its commitment to “agrivoltaics,” the practice of combining solar power generation with agricultural practices. This agreement also strengthens the company’s presence in the Texas market, where Enel is the leading operator of utility-scale battery storage.