Three large solar-and-battery projects are in the works in Eastland County. Together they would add about 639 megawatts of solar power — enough to make this one of the bigger clusters of solar development the county has seen.
We first reported on these projects on May 20, 2026 and we have since followed up with our information we had at the time. Two companies are behind them. Two of the projects trace back to Samsung C&T Renewables, part of the South Korean company Samsung C&T. The third traces to Vesper Energy, a developer based in Irving, Texas.
To put this story together, The Alliance Gazette went through public records: the state’s electric-grid waiting list, Texas business filings, and land documents recorded at the Eastland County Clerk’s office. We also wrote to both companies before publishing. Samsung answered our questions. Vesper did not respond.
Here is what we found, in plain terms.
The three projects
Each project is a solar farm paired with a battery storage system. All three are filed with ERCOT, the agency that runs the Texas power grid, and are waiting in line to connect.
- Damia Solar — 306 MW, in the north-central part of the county near Cisco. Target start: July 2028.
- Basketflower Solar — 183 MW, in the southwest near Rising Star. Target start: December 2027.
- Star Grass Renewable Energy — 150 MW, in the west near Carbon and Putnam. Target start: September 2029.
The three would connect to the power grid at three different points around the county, not all in one spot.
Who owns them
Two of the projects — Damia and Basketflower — list the same California mailing address as Samsung C&T Renewables. We asked Samsung about it directly, and the company confirmed it: Samsung C&T Renewables owns 100% of both Damia Solar and Basketflower Solar. The company also told us it is actively buying up land rights for the two projects in Eastland County.
In a later reply, Samsung said the projects are set up as long-term land leases, that it has not yet lined up a buyer for the electricity, and that it would follow Texas law when it comes time to tear the projects down.
Samsung would not tell us how many landowners it has signed up, how many acres it controls, or who in the area people can contact with questions. It pointed us to its U.S. development team instead.
The third project, Star Grass, belongs to Vesper Energy — a separate company, with a different address and no connection to Samsung.
“Aren’t solar farms basically unregulated?” Not in Texas.
A lot of people assume there are few rules on big solar projects. That’s not the case in Texas. State law spells out what a company has to do at the end of a project’s life — and who has to pay for it.
The 2021 law (Senate Bill 760). This is the backbone. It says the company, not the landowner, is responsible for cleaning up when a solar farm shuts down.
The company has to take out the panels, transformers, and other equipment; dig up foundations and buried cables to at least three feet down and fill the holes back in; take down the power lines; and if the landowner asks, pull out the access roads, haul off big rocks, and return the land to a farmable condition — even reseeding pasture with native grass.
The same 2021 law also requires financial assurance — basically, proof that the money for cleanup will actually be there. The company has to give the landowner a bond, a letter of credit, or a guarantee from a credit-worthy parent company, big enough to cover the cleanup cost minus whatever the old equipment is still worth. An independent, licensed Texas engineer has to figure out those numbers and update them over time. And these protections can’t be signed away in the lease — if a company breaks the rules, the landowner can take it to court.
There’s a catch worth understanding: the company doesn’t have to post that cleanup money up front. The law gives it until the earlier of the lease ending or the 20th year after the project starts running. Since none of these three projects is operating yet, that clock hasn’t even started. That’s why a company can honestly say it “follows Texas law” without having put up a bond yet.
The 2025 updates (House Bills 3228 and 3809). Lawmakers added more. Now companies also have to recycle what they can — solar panels are named specifically — and properly dispose of the rest. The cost of that recycling has to be built into the cleanup money. A companion law set up similar rules for battery storage.
One important detail: these 2025 updates only apply to land agreements signed on or after September 1, 2025. The Damia and Star Grass agreements we found were all signed before that date — so the older 2021 rules appear to cover them, while the newer recycling rules may not. Which set of rules ultimately applies depends on exactly when the underlying agreements were signed, something the recorded documents alone don’t settle.
The bottom line: these projects do come with real cleanup and funding obligations under Texas law — but some of those obligations can be years away, and the exact rules depend on the fine print of when each deal was signed.
What the land records show: Damia (Samsung)
At the county clerk’s office, we found three recorded option agreements tying Damia Solar to about 1,950 acres, signed by three different landowners. That total is approximate — the legal descriptions carve out some pieces. These are options to lease, meaning Samsung has locked in the right to lease the land later, not that a final lease is signed.
The three landowners, all named in the public documents they signed:
- CEB Ranch, LLC (signed by April Wells) — about 642 acres near Cisco, optioned in July 2024.
- Harrison PV, LLC (signed by Phillip Harrison) — about 1,172 acres, optioned in December 2024. This is the biggest piece, and its map carries the Samsung C&T logo.
- Vickilea and Shannon Spruill, a married couple — about 150 acres near Section 59, optioned in April 2025.
Separately, a husband and wife who own mineral rights under some of this land — Billy and Kay Hallman — signed paperwork in 2026 giving up their right to disturb the surface, which clears the way for solar construction. In Texas, mineral rights can override surface use, so solar developers commonly get these waivers. The Hallmans are mineral owners, not the landowners leasing for the solar farm.
One thing the records do not show: the money. Every one of these documents leaves out the dollar amounts — the pages listing what landowners are paid were removed before the documents were filed. So we can’t say from these records what anyone was paid.
What the land records show: Star Grass (Vesper)
For the Vesper project, we found one recorded land document: a ground lease, filed March 2025, between a landowner called 3M Legacy, LLC (signed by Jake Morgan) and Star Grass Renewable Energy (signed by its CEO, Juan Suarez). The paperwork routes back to Vesper Energy in Irving — a second, independent confirmation of who’s behind Star Grass.
The lease covers about 191 acres near County Road 136 and can run as long as 57 years. Unlike the Damia documents — which are options — this one is an actual signed lease.
We don’t know whether Vesper has leased other land for this project; this was the only Star Grass document we located. We sent questions to a Vesper press contact, Alex Neely, giving the same deadline we gave Samsung. Neely did not respond.
What we still don’t know
We’ve tried to be clear about the limits of what the records show:
- Basketflower’s land deals. Samsung confirmed this project is real, is theirs, and that they’re actively buying land for it. But unlike Damia, we did not find recorded land documents for Basketflower at the county clerk’s office. That doesn’t mean none exist — paperwork often takes months to get recorded. Damia’s first deal took about three and a half months to show up. It just means we haven’t found them yet.
- The money. No record we reviewed shows what any landowner is being paid.
- Who’s buying the power. Samsung says it hasn’t lined up a buyer yet. No buyer is named for any of the three projects.
- A local contact. Samsung wouldn’t give one. Vesper didn’t answer.
How we reported this
Everything here comes from public records anyone can access: the ERCOT grid waiting list, the Texas Comptroller’s business database, land documents from the Eastland County Clerk’s office, written answers from Samsung C&T, and Texas state law (Senate Bill 760 from 2021, and House Bills 3228 and 3809 from 2025). We did not use any private or confidential records.
We’ll keep following these projects as they move forward.
The Alliance Gazette 