Arkansas regulators approved the Entergy Arkansas Driver Solar Project, a 250 MWac/312 MWdc facility developed by Lightsource bp, which will be located on around 2,100 acres near Osceola in Mississippi County. 

The site is adjacent to both the U. S. Steel’s Big River Steel facility and its recently announced $3 billion expansion. Lightsource bp has completed development and permitting of the solar field and will build the facility under a build-transfer agreement with Entergy Arkansas. Driver Solar has an expected completion date in late 2024.

Energy generated by the facility will help to power the U.S. Steel operation.

In November 2021, Lightsource bp and bp announced a procurement deal with First Solar Inc. for 5.4 GW of modules, some of which will be used on the Driver Solar project. The facility will use solar trackers from Albuquerque-based Array Technologies.