Ørsted’s Mockingbird Solar Center Named “Solar Ecosystem of the Year” at the 2025 North American Agrivoltaics Awards
CHICAGO – August 5, 2025 – Ørsted announced today that the Mockingbird Solar Center in Lamar County, Texas has been awarded Solar Ecosystem of the Year at the 2025 North American Agrivoltaics Awards. This award, conferred at the Solar Farm Summit in Chicago on August 4, recognizes leadership in integrating utility-scale solar with ecosystem stewardship.
Hosted in partnership with The American Farmland Trust, National Renewable Energy Laboratories, and the American Solar Grazing Association, the conference aims to foster ideas, inspire action, and promote connections among developers, farmers, researchers, and policymakers to accelerate agrivoltaics at scale.
“We’re proud to receive this recognition, which reflects the importance of working together across agriculture, conservation, and renewable energy,” said Melissa Peterson, Head of Onshore Development and Origination at Ørsted. “Working with The Nature Conservancy and partnering with local farmers and landowners has been essential to preserving the Smiley Woodfin Prairie while delivering a project that meets Texas’s growing energy needs.”
Ørsted acquired and donated 953 acres of rare native tallgrass prairie— known as the Smiley-Woodfin Prairie— adjacent to its 468 MW solar project in Lamar County, Texas. With less than one percent of Texas’s original tallgrass prairies remaining, this has become the largest documented preservation of this ecosystem type in the state of Texas. Smiley Meadow Preserve, now managed by The Nature Conservancy in Texas, is one of the most intact segments of native tallgrass prairie in the region and will act as a biodiversity refuge and seed source for vegetation restoration.
“We’re proud to see Mockingbird Solar recognized for its innovative approach to renewable energy development along with prairie conservation,” said Suzanne Scott, Texas State Director for The Nature Conservancy. “This project demonstrates how we can restore ecosystems while mitigating climate change and powering communities—and we hope this collaboration inspires similar efforts across the globe.”
The solar facility has the capacity to power over 80,000 Texas homes, while the preserve provides numerous benefits, from flood prevention and water filtration to carbon storage. The Smiley Woodfin Prairie provides habitat for over 300 species of birds, monarch butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. The Mockingbird project marked Ørsted’s first U.S. biodiversity initiative, part of its global ambition for net-positive biodiversity impact.
About Ørsted
A global clean energy leader, Ørsted develops, constructs, and operates offshore and land-based wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, and bioenergy plants.
In the United States, the company has approximately 800 employees and a portfolio of American energy assets from the Northeast to the Gulf and many states across the country, all delivering affordable and reliable energy. In total, the company has approximately 11 gigawatts of American energy projects in development, construction, and operation. Ørsted operates America’s first offshore wind farm off the coast of Block Island, the country’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm, South Fork Wind, and one of the country’s largest battery storage facilities located in Arizona. To learn more about the Ørsted U.S. business, visit us.orsted.com or follow the company on X (@OrstedUS), Instagram, and Facebook.
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