Ørsted has completed construction of the 518MW Helena Energy Center, a combined wind and solar energy project in Bee County, Texas.

The centre, which combines the 268MW Helena Wind farm and the 250 MWac (megawatts of alternating current) Sparta solar farm, is now fully operational.

It will supply green electricity to 110,000 Texan homes and businesses annually.

The Helena Energy Center features 66 wind turbines and 600,000 solar panels.

Contracts are already in place with multiple corporate off-takers.

During its construction phase, the Helena Energy Center created 500 construction jobs, and is expected to create operations and maintenance jobs for decades.

Ørsted Americas Region executive vice-president and CEO David Hardy stated: “Helena Energy Center is unique in that it’s Ørsted’s first co-located wind and solar project and the largest renewable energy project in our global onshore portfolio.

“Taking advantage of the Gulf of Mexico’s strong coastal winds and abundant sunshine, the project will offer reliable energy to Texas’ grid and economic opportunity for the local community.

“In reaching full operations, Helena Energy Center brings Ørsted’s global operating onshore portfolio to 4.8GW. We look forward to building on that momentum as more onshore projects come online in the US this year.” 

Ørsted is also expanding its renewable portfolio with 1.3GW of onshore assets currently under construction.

An approximate capacity of 1.1GW is expected to come online in 2024.

In June, Ørsted announced that it will install a Tesla battery storage system at its Hornsea 3 wind farm off the coast of East Anglia, UK.

With 600MW of storage capacity, the battery will be sufficient to meet the power requirements of 80,000 UK homes.

Set to be completed by the end of 2026, it will be one of the largest of its kind in Europe.