(The Center Square) – More semiconductor and power plants are breaking ground or coming online after receiving millions in taxpayer funds through grants or loans established by the state legislature and governor.
Two major projects include Texas A&M University expanding semiconductor research in College Station and a new natural gas power plant coming online in Freestone County.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday that Texas A&M is the latest university to receive a Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund (TSIF) grant for semiconductor research and development. Its Cyclotron Institute, which has provided high-energy heavy-ion particle testing for more than 30 years, received a $13 million TSIF grant.
“Texas is where the future of innovation accelerates,” Abbott said in a statement. “Through this TSIF grant, Texas A&M University will speed the development of innovative technologies used in our semiconductor, defense, and space exploration industries. In collaboration with our higher education partners, we will further advance Texas’ leadership in semiconductor research, testing, and design while we secure our nation’s future.”
The institute, supported by the state of Texas and the U.S. Department of Energy, operates a K500 superconducting cyclotron and its advanced ECR ion sources. The grant will help it and its Radiation Effects Facility enhance capabilities for radiation hardness testing essential for developing resilient systems in harsh environments. The institute is upgrading its facility to expand its capabilities to allow its researchers to accelerate radioactive ion beams to expand its research into nuclear structure, astrophysics, atomic physics and applied nuclear science, it says.
Texas A&M University System Chancellor Glenn Hegar said the grant “will strengthen a resource that’s essential to testing and validating the electronics and materials our nation depends on, from satellites and spacecraft to missile defense systems and nuclear power. That means faster innovation, greater reliability, and stronger national security – all made possible because Texas continues to lead in semiconductor and advanced technology research.”
In April, Abbott participated in a groundbreaking of the future site of a new Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute facility being built on the Texas A&M-RELLIS Campus. It and several other colleges and universities have received TSIF grants, The Center Square reported.
In 2023, the state legislature passed the Texas’ CHIPS Act, which Abbott signed into law. It created a new Texas CHIPS Office, allocated $700 million for the TISF fund and established grants, and the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium, The Center Square reported. It was an outworking of Abbott prioritizing Texas leading the U.S. in chip manufacturing when supply chain shortages and backlogs began under the Biden administration.
Similarly, the state legislature passed several bills in 2021 to strengthen the Texas grid, including expanding reliable dispatchable power generation prioritizing natural gas.
In 2023, the legislature created a $5 billion Texas Energy Fund (TxEF) loan program and voters overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment to expand “the construction, maintenance, modernization, and operation of electric generating facilities,” The Center Square reported.
The rollout of the TxEF was so successful that the legislature increased funding for it. It appropriated $5 billion to fund TxEF for fiscal years 2025-2026 and an additional $4 billion for fiscal years 2027-2028, The Center Square reported.
Last month, the Timmerman Power Plant near Maxwell in Caldwell County was the first natural gas peaker plant and TxEF-supported project to come fully online. In April 2024, it broke ground and by last August the first unit was operational, The Center Square reported.
On Tuesday, the second natural gas peaker plant and TxEF-supported plant came online, the Pin Oak Creek Energy Center near Fairfield in Freestone County. Abbott and Calpine Corporation CEO Thad Hill announced the project in December 2023, saying the project would bring more than 300 new jobs to the county and create 425 megawatts of new, dispatchable generation, The Center Square reported.
Less than 30 months after Calpine received a $278 million TxEF loan, its new facility came online. The Freestone Energy Center, a natural gas-fired combined-cycle facility, was the first facility Calpine built in the northern part of the Texas Regional Entity market area, it says. Built adjacent to it is the Pin Oak Creek Energy Center, a peaker plant designed to quickly supply electricity when demand is at its highest.
It will ensure “that the power grid is going to have extra power during times of peak demand,” Abbott said.
Calpine Corporation is the largest generator of electricity from natural gas and geothermal resources in the U.S. The Fortune 500 company based in Houston has 76 power plants operating in 22 states, Canada and Mexico. They generate nearly 26,000 MW of capacity, enough to power approximately 20 million homes, according to the company’s website.
