Texas Solar-Powered Data Center Will Channel Surplus Sunlight Into Supercomputing

• Soluna Holdings will build a 75-MW modular data-center campus next to a 114-MW solar array in northeast Texas, turning excess daytime power into high-performance computing.

High-performance computing is about to get a solar makeover in northeast Texas. Soluna Holdings has signed a power-supply term sheet for Project Annie, a 75-megawatt modular data-center campus that will sit beside a 114-MW photovoltaic array scheduled to break ground later this year. The pairing promises to turn midday solar surpluses—often curtailed when production exceeds grid demand—into profitable computing cycles for applications ranging from AI model training to scientific simulations.

How the model works

At full sun, the co-located solar plant will generate more electricity than the regional grid can absorb, a growing problem in Texas where solar output has quadrupled since 2020. Project Annie’s container-style server halls will soak up that excess, throttling workloads in real time as cloud cover passes or wholesale prices plunge. By dynamically matching compute demand to available renewable supply—what Soluna calls “symbiotic load”—the project avoids the carbon penalty of round-the-clock fossil generation while monetising electrons that would otherwise be wasted.

Financing and footprint

Soluna has not disclosed the project’s capital cost, but industry analysts put combined solar-plus-compute outlays in the USD 300 million range. The data campus will occupy roughly 20 acres within the solar farm’s fence line and tap a shared substation connected to ERCOT’s transmission network. Cooling will rely on closed-loop evaporative systems designed to operate efficiently in Texas’s hot, dry climate without straining local water resources.

A hedge against volatile power prices

Texas already leads the U.S. in wind energy, and solar is catching up fast. That growth has driven midday power prices toward zero and even negative territory, squeezing merchant plant revenues. By integrating a dispatchable computing load directly onsite, the solar operator secures a dedicated offtaker, while Soluna gains a long-term hedge against electricity-price swings—an elegant win-win that could become a template for renewable developers nationwide.

Looking ahead

Construction is slated to begin in early 2026, with commercial operation targeted for late 2027. If the hybrid proves out, Soluna plans to replicate the model at wind-rich sites in the Texas Panhandle and solar hubs across the Southwest, signaling a future in which the power-hungry digital economy becomes a stabilizing partner—rather than a burden—for an increasingly renewable grid.