Mitsui & Co. said it would invest about ¥30 billion in a 150 MW solar plant paired with 150 MW of battery storage in Hill County, Texas, targeting operation in 2026. Power will be sold by its US subsidiary MEMS, which trades in the wholesale market and holds a Texas retail electricity license. Mitsui called the project a step toward integrating generation and retail in Texas. Building a Texas power business Mitsui's US unit MEMS started out trading natural gas. It began trading power in the US in 2018, started buying output from a West Texas solar plant in 2021 and got a Texas retail electricity license in 2023. The new plant lets it sell its own power to the wholesale market and to industrial customers, with the batteries smoothing out the ups and downs of solar output. The site The plant, called Three W Solar, is near Hillsboro in Hill County, south of Dallas–Fort Worth. Mitsui said it wants to build up a larger set of power assets in Texas over time, as part of the energy transition goals in its plan to 2026.
