Inside Steel River, the Largest Solar-Plus-Storage Project in US History
In a farm county of fewer than 40,000 people, construction just began on the largest solar and battery power plant ever built in the United States. Its first customer is Google.
Solar panels catch sunlight during the day. Batteries save the extra for after dark, so the power keeps flowing at night too.
Google isn’t buying the land or the equipment, it’s an "anchor investor" in the project and signed a power purchase agreement to buy 100% of the electricity and environmental attributes from the first two phases, according to Google’s own company blog and Utility Dive’s coverage of the deal.
Illustrative diagram: a simplified sequence showing how the power flows, not the plant's actual electrical layout.
Arkansas led the nation in farm bankruptcies last year. For struggling family farms nearby, leasing land for solar means steady income instead of a for-sale sign.
Cypress Creek Energy, which purchased the Steel River project from its original developer in March 2026 and then secured $3.5 billion in construction financing that June, arranged by Barclays, BNP Paribas, Santander, and Wells Fargo, leases much of its land from large local landowners like the Lawrence Group, while smaller family farms nearby use solar lease payments to keep the rest of their operations financially viable.
Illustrative scene: a stylized rendering of the transformation described, not an actual photo of the site.
At full capacity, Steel River will generate more instantaneous power than Arkansas's two nuclear reactors combined, a three phase build running from groundbreaking in July 2026 to full completion in 2029.
The first two phases alone total 1.6 GW of solar and 1.9 GW of battery storage; the completed three phase project will total 2.5 GW of solar and 2.9 GW of storage, according to figures confirmed by Cypress Creek CEO Kevin Smith and reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Utility Dive, and Energy Tech. It surpasses the prior U.S. record holder, California’s Edwards & Sanborn plant (875 MW solar / 3.3 GWh storage), which held that title for barely two years.
Data: Steel River, 2.5 GW solar / 2.9 GW storage at full buildout (1.6 GW / 1.9 GW in phases 1–2). Arkansas Nuclear One (both reactors combined), 1.8 GW. Edwards & Sanborn (prior U.S. record holder), 875 MW solar / 3.3 GWh storage.
This isn't an outlier, it's the trend. Solar and storage made up roughly 91% of all new U.S. electricity generation capacity in the first quarter of 2026 alone, per a Solar Energy Industries Association report cited by Utility Dive and ESG Dive.
Steel River is that national trend, concentrated into one 11,000 acre site. When complete, it's expected to generate enough electricity to power more than 315,000 Arkansas homes a year, roughly eight times the entire population of the county where it's being built.
Illustrative trend: yearly proportions before 2026 are approximate, shown to illustrate the direction of the trend. Data (Q1 2026 new U.S. capacity): solar + storage, ~91% (SEIA). Steel River footprint, 11,000 acres; projected output, 315,000+ homes/year; Mississippi County population, approximately 38,000.
Mississippi County produces more steel than any other county in the nation. Cypress Creek says its solar panels are made entirely in the U.S., with "nearly all" of the project's structural steel sourced from local Mississippi County mills.
Some people still question whether a domestic solar supply chain is possible. This project is proof, Cypress Creek’s Kevin Smith told Talk Business & Politics. Google and Cypress Creek are also funding an $8 million local community package, $5 million from Google and $3 million from Cypress Creek, including a $400,000 contribution toward a new school playground in the district.
Illustrative schematic: relative positions only, not an accurate geographic map or exact mileage. Data: roughly a 30 mile radius covering the Steel River site, Paco Steel (Blytheville), and U.S. Steel’s Big River Steel plant (Osceola). Combined community investment: $8 million ($5M Google + $3M Cypress Creek).
"People are realizing the generational impact that these projects can have in these rural communities that so desperately need a shot in the arm," says Lauren Waldrip, executive director of the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association.
Over its lifetime, Steel River is expected to inject $300 million into the local tax base and support roughly 700 construction jobs per phase, real money for a county that’s spent recent years watching its farms struggle. It’s a preview of a trade playing out across rural America: land, sunlight, and steel, exchanged for a stake in the AI economy. Google is separately reported to be developing two other Arkansas data center projects, a $4 billion campus in West Memphis and a $1 billion facility at the Port of Little Rock, though Google has not officially confirmed its involvement in either, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Illustrative icons: a stylized rendering of a farm and the plant rising behind it, not an actual photo of the site. Data: $300 million projected lifetime local tax contribution; roughly 700 construction jobs per phase.
Every source below links directly to the original reporting or data cited in this piece.