Akuo Solar Deal Powers Imerys' US Plants with Texas Sunshine

• Akuo’s 195-MWp Tennyson Solar Farm will power a third of Imerys’ US operations, fixing energy costs and cutting 67 kt of CO₂ under a 15-year Texas PPA.

When the French renewables group Akuo scouted fresh ground for its next big project, Texas kept rising to the top of the map. The state’s vast stretches of sun-soaked ranchland, handy grid connections and open-door permitting have already turned it into America’s solar heartland. Now Akuo plans to add another pin: the 195-MWp Tennyson Solar Farm in sparsely populated Coke County.

Earlier this month, Akuo signed a 15-year power-purchase agreement that hands every electron from Tennyson to compatriot Imerys, the world-leading supplier of kaolin, graphite and a long list of other specialty minerals. Once the panels start generating in 2026—construction is due to break ground early next year—the plant will deliver roughly 153 GWh of electricity a year. That covers about a third of all the power Imerys consumes in the United States and trims close to 67,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of taking 15,000 petrol cars off the road.

For Imerys, the deal is as much about risk management as decarbonisation. Industrial energy prices have lurched around since 2022, and long-term price security is worth almost as much as the green credentials. By locking in a fixed rate with Akuo, the Paris-listed miner can budget with confidence, hit its interim climate targets, and reassure customers who increasingly scrutinise supply chains for embedded emissions.

Akuo, meanwhile, is milking every incentive in Washington’s Inflation Reduction Act. Tennyson’s design meets the domestic-content thresholds that unlock a 10-percentage-point tax-credit bonus on top of the standard 30 per cent. First Solar’s thin-film modules and Nextracker’s smart, single-axis trackers—both largely built on US soil—tick the right boxes and cushion the project’s economics.

Local communities stand to benefit, too. At the peak of construction more than 250 workers will dot the site, and fresh tax revenue should help a county better known for cattle drives than climate tech. Akuo already co-owns two Texan wind farms, Rocksprings and Escalade, and executives hint that batteries might follow the panels in Coke County to push power into the evening peak.

As more industrial heavyweights emulate Imerys and shop directly for sunshine, Texas appears set to tighten its grip on the US solar crown—one ranch fence at a time.