McDonalds and Ebay to Buy Power From the Largest Louisiana Solar ‘Farm’ in the Works

By Kristen Mosbrucker

The Advocate

The largest solar project proposed in Louisiana so far just got a little bigger and expects to sell its power to retail giants such as eBay Inc. and McDonalds Corp. 

San Francisco-based Lightsource Renewable Energy Development LLC filed an application with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in late June for a 300 megawatt project spanning 2,732 acres in Pointe Coupee Parish. 

Now the company, a subsidiary of BP, is touting the project will be 345 megawatts. It looks to begin construction in October and connect to the grid by June 2023. During the construction phase, the project is expected to support 400 temporary jobs "primarily of local labor." The BP subsidiary would be the long-term owner and operator of the project. BP estimates that it would generate $30 million over the "project life," roughly two decades through a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement.

Dubbed Ventress Solar, the project is estimated to produce 600,000 megawatts of electricity each year, enough to power the equivalent of 59,000 houses, based on national averages. The company is developing a plan for the project "to maximize sustainability benefits through habitat creation and co-located agriculture to farm the land while also harnessing solar energy."

The company said Monday that McDonald's and eBay have signed virtual power purchase agreements for its U.S. operations.

“This project enables us to source the clean energy equivalent of our data center," said Renee Morin, chief sustainability officer of eBay. The e-commerce company looks to hit 100% renewable energy by 2025.

“As one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, McDonald’s is uniquely positioned to help spur significant action around climate change," Emma Cox, global renewable energy lead at McDonalds, said.

More than a dozen other projects are proposed in Louisiana, which are seeking or were awarded Industrial Tax Exemption Program incentives. The incentives would provide them up to 10 years of property tax breaks for land turned from agricultural use to industrial for a large-scale solar project. 

But the BP-affiliated project appears to have used a PILOT agreement instead, which was approved by the Pointe Coupee Parish Council in late May. 

The deal leverages the Capital Area Finance Authority, a public trust, which entered into a memorandum of understanding with Ventress Solar Farm I LLC, the subsidiary of the developer for the project along 13330 Ventress Road, to make annual payments until 2024. The value of the first payment would be $667,123 due Dec. 31, 2022.

“It brings the largest economic development project to the area in 30 years, with minimal impact on our infrastructure," said Major Thibaut, president of Pointe Coupee Parish.