AdventHealth has signed a power purchase agreement for 253.4 MW of the Stafford solar project in West Texas. One contract, one site, and up to 70 percent of the hospital system's electricity. That is an unusually large share for a single deal to carry. It also leaves a gap that the contract alone does not close.
Key takeaways
- AdventHealth signed a power purchase agreement with Stafford Solar, announced on 27 August 2024, for 253.46 MW of the Stafford solar project in West Texas, with the term and price undisclosed.
- The Stafford Solar PPA is expected to supply up to 60 to 70 percent of AdventHealth's systemwide electricity needs, with output of about 637 GWh a year.
- The 253.4 MW Stafford solar project sits on a 3,000-acre site in West Texas, in the ERCOT market, and supplies AdventHealth off site.
- The Stafford PPA supports AdventHealth's goal of using 100 percent renewable electricity by late 2025 and its commitment to cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50 percent by 2030.
- Enerdatics records 44 ERCOT solar PPAs announced in 2024; among the 32 that disclose capacity, AdventHealth's 253.46 MW Stafford contract ranks eighth, against a median of about 170 MW.
How much of a hospital system can one solar farm supply?
More than most corporate buyers would try to cover in one go. A power purchase agreement, or PPA, is a long-term contract in which a buyer agrees to take a project's output at agreed terms. Large companies usually build up their renewable supply in slices, signing several contracts with different projects so that no single plant carries too much of the load.
AdventHealth has done the opposite. The Stafford contract alone is expected to meet up to 60 to 70 percent of its systemwide electricity needs. Read the other way, Leap's figures imply that a system needing 637 GWh to cover that share uses somewhere around 0.9 to 1.06 TWh a year in total. That is a large load, spread across many hospitals, now tied in large part to one plant in one region of one state.
The output figure says something about the plant, too. At 637 GWh a year from 253.46 MW, Stafford is expected to run at the equivalent of about 2,510 full-power hours a year, or a capacity factor of roughly 29 percent. That is a strong figure for a solar plant, consistent with its West Texas location.
Does Stafford get AdventHealth to 100 percent renewable power?
Not on its own, and Leap does not record whether it gets there at all. AdventHealth's target is 100 percent renewable electricity by late 2025. Stafford covers up to 60 to 70 percent. The remaining 30 to 40 percent has to come from somewhere else.
Part of it is already contracted. In February 2024, six months before Stafford, AdventHealth signed a virtual PPA with Scout Clean Energy for 90 MW of the Heart of Texas wind farm, also in ERCOT. A virtual PPA is a financial contract: the buyer does not take physical delivery but settles the difference between a fixed price and the market price, and receives the renewable attributes. AdventHealth took exactly half of that 180 MW project, as Enerdatics covered when it looked at how Scout split its Heart of Texas wind farm among corporate buyers.
Leap does not record the expected output of AdventHealth's share of Heart of Texas, so it is not possible to say from the data whether wind plus Stafford reaches 100 percent. What the two contracts show is a buyer combining wind and solar in the same market. Texas wind tends to produce more at night and solar during the day, so pairing them smooths the match between contracted generation and a hospital system's round-the-clock demand.
What is missing from the Stafford contract?
Almost every commercial term. Leap records the capacity, the expected output and the share of AdventHealth's load. It does not record the contract length, the price or the structure. The seller is listed as Stafford Solar, the project company, with no developer or owner named behind it.
That is typical of the market rather than unusual for this deal. Among the 44 ERCOT solar PPAs Enerdatics records for 2024, none discloses a tariff and only 12 disclose a term. Corporate buyers and sellers in Texas treat price as confidential, and the public record usually stops at size.
The emissions framing is also worth reading carefully. AdventHealth ties the contract to its goal of halving Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030. Scope 2 covers emissions from purchased electricity, which a renewable PPA addresses directly. Scope 1 covers direct emissions, such as from on-site fuel use, which a power contract does not touch. The PPA supports the combined target, but only through its Scope 2 half.
Enerdatics' data shows 44 solar PPAs in ERCOT announced in 2024, of which 32 disclose a capacity. They range from 2.6 MW to 460 MW, with a median of about 170 MW. AdventHealth's 253.46 MW is the eighth largest. The seven above it were signed by Amazon (three contracts), Microsoft, Nestle, NRG Energy and Meta. Healthcare buyers appear near the top as well: in March 2024 UnitedHealth Group signed a 15-year PPA for 250 MW of Orsted's Mockingbird solar center, a contract that sits ninth, just behind AdventHealth. UnitedHealth also signed a seven-year, 80 MW contract for Swift Current Energy's Tres Bahias project, where it later became a tax equity investor as well.
What does the deal signal for Texas corporate solar?
It signals that the buyers of large Texas solar contracts are no longer only technology companies. Technology companies still take most of the top places, but a hospital system and a healthcare group each signed for around 250 MW in the same year. Both contracts sit in the top ten of 2024's ERCOT solar PPAs by size.
It also signals how concentrated some corporate procurement has become. A buyer covering up to 70 percent of its load from one plant is accepting more exposure to that plant's performance, its delivery date and its location in the grid. In return it gets scale and a single counterparty to manage. AdventHealth's choice to pair the solar contract with an earlier wind contract suggests it is aware of that trade-off.
Finally, it shows how much remains private. Mockingbird, for comparison, has drawn several corporate buyers on 15-year terms, as Enerdatics found when it mapped Mockingbird's four corporate buyers. Stafford's term is not public at all. For anyone benchmarking healthcare PPAs in Texas, size is visible, and almost nothing else is.
Frequently asked questions
What did AdventHealth sign for the Stafford solar project? AdventHealth signed a PPA with Stafford Solar, announced on 27 August 2024, for 253.46 MW of the Stafford solar project in West Texas, expected to deliver about 637 GWh a year.
How much of AdventHealth's electricity will Stafford supply? The Stafford PPA is expected to supply up to 60 to 70 percent of AdventHealth's systemwide electricity needs, supporting its goal of 100 percent renewable electricity by late 2025.
Does AdventHealth have other renewable power contracts? Yes. In February 2024 AdventHealth signed a virtual PPA with Scout Clean Energy for 90 MW of the Heart of Texas wind farm, also in the ERCOT market.
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