Houston's Sunnyside community closer to developing country's largest solar farm

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Houston's Sunnyside community just got a little closer to a goal of building the country's biggest solar farm.

Friday, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced the city has gotten Texas Commission on Environment Quality, or TCEQ, approval to build the farm at the site of a landfill that was shut down more than 50 years before.

The idea is to transform a 240-acre dump site into a solar farm that would generate enough power for 5,000 homes.

"The area has remained one of Houston's biggest community challenges for decades, but I'm optimistic," said Turner.

"We now will have abated this area of the pollution, number one, and resubstituted it with technology that even the kids can thrive from," said Kerry Hayes, who was born and raised in the area. "Jobs can happen, things like that."

If all goes as planned, workers will be able to break ground in 2023, and the facility could be operational by July of 2023.

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