Utility Scale Solar
Our newest renewable energy resource is the Hecate Energy utility scale solar facility located just west of Livingston. The facility can produce up to 4 megawatts. Hecate is a developer of renewable power projects in the United States. Sam Houston Electric Cooperative will purchase the output via a long-term agreement between the Co-op and Hecate Energy.
Hydroelectric
Through our G&T relationship with ETEC, Sam Houston EC’s power portfolio includes a significant amount of hydroelectric power generation.
Sam Rayburn Dam is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers facility that came online in 1965. It has the capacity to produce up to 52 megawatts of electricity.
The R.D. Willis Hydropower Project is located at Town Bluff Dam on B.A. Steinhagen Lake. The dam, also a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, was completed in 1953. The 8-megawatt R.D. Willis Hydropower Facility was added in 1987.
The newest contributor to Sam Houston EC’s hydroelectric power portfolio is the R.C. Thomas Hydroelectric Facility, located at Lake Livingston Dam. The state-of-the-art facility was developed in cooperation with the Trinity River Authority, and the City of Houston, which owns the rights to 70% of the water in Lake Livingston. It is a run-of-the-river facility that does not affect water levels of the lake. The R.C. Thomas Hydroelectric Facility generates up to 24 megawatts of clean, local, renewable power.
Wind
While East Texas is not suited for generating electricity with wind, because of Sam Houston EC’s involvement in ETEC, we are able to include a substantial amount of reasonably priced wind energy in the Co-op’s power generation portfolio. That wind energy comes from 2 Oklahoma wind farms: Grant Wind Farm and Redbed Plains Wind Farm.