Who Is Orion Renewable Energy Group? Inside the Company Behind the Persimmon Energy Center

By the time most people north of Moss Bluff heard the name Persimmon Energy Center, Orion Renewable Energy Group had already been working on it for years.

Orion says development began in 2019.

The first land agreements identified in Calcasieu Parish records by KPLC date to 2022. By September 2026, reporters had found at least nine leases involving large parcels, a purchase agreement on another property and numerous right-of-way and servitude agreements.

Now the company is talking publicly about a solar and battery project spread across roughly 4,700 acres of North Calcasieu.

Orion's current project materials put the proposed investment at $2.4 billion, with up to 762 megawatts of generation and an estimated $26 million in average annual local property-tax revenue.

Those are Orion's projections.

The company behind them has been developing energy projects since 1998.

So we opened the file.

Orion has been doing this for 28 years

Orion Renewable Energy Group is based in Oakland, California.

Its history starts in 1998, when Michael Haas founded Orion Energy LLC, the predecessor of today's company.

The first Orion-developed wind project was operating in West Texas that same year. In 2000, Orion completed Pennsylvania's first utility-scale wind farm.

By 2008, more than 1,000 MW of Orion-developed wind projects were operating.

By 2012, it was more than 2,500 MW.

Orion moved into solar, and in 2017 recorded its first sale of solar development assets to an investor-owned utility. Its first developed solar project entered operation in 2019.

Today, Orion says projects it developed and that are now operating or under construction total 10,600 MW. The company estimates those projects will produce $2.6 billion in landowner and local tax payments over their operating lives.

Persimmon isn't Orion learning how to build a utility-scale energy project.

It's the latest project in a development business that has been doing this for nearly three decades.

The company starts long before construction

If you want to understand Orion, don't start with solar panels.

Start with dirt.

Orion describes its own development process publicly. Its developers and engineers search for places where several things can be made to work at once: landowners willing to participate, suitable environmental conditions, renewable resources and access to the electrical transmission system.

Then comes land control.

Then interconnection.

Environmental review.

Permitting.

Financing.

Procurement.

Construction comes much later.

The public usually meets a project somewhere near the permitting stage.

A developer may have met the property years earlier.

That's exactly what appears to have happened in Calcasieu Parish.

Before Persimmon was a public fight, it was a real-estate project

KPLC reporters went to the Calcasieu Parish Clerk of Court.

They found the paper.

At least nine leases involving large parcels.

A purchase agreement involving another property.

Numerous rights-of-way and servitudes involving other landowners.

The records reviewed by KPLC show Orion securing land agreements since at least 2022. Orion says development of Persimmon began in 2019.

Some of the agreements contemplate operating periods of 30 to 37 years.

One participating property alone contains more than 2,000 acres and is owned by Mitigation Group.

Landowner Michael Moore told KPLC that the agreements contain option periods and can terminate if the project fails to obtain approval.

Orion gave KPLC essentially the same explanation. Amanda Hoffman with the company said the 37-year period applies to the operating period after construction. If construction doesn't begin within the development period established by the agreement, the lease terminates.

This is what development looks like before anybody pours concrete.

The land has to exist as a project before the project can ask permission to exist as a facility.

Orion has done this before

The company's history becomes more interesting when you follow its projects beyond development.

Orion doesn't necessarily own what Orion develops.

Sometimes somebody else does.

Pilot Hill

In Illinois, Orion and Vision Energy developed the 175 MW Pilot Hill Wind Project.

By July 2014, the project already had something valuable attached to it: a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft.

Then EDF Renewables entered the picture.

EDF acquired a 96 percent interest in Pilot Hill from Orion and Vision Energy.

Construction followed. The project reached commercial operation in September 2015.

Microsoft's agreement was tied to the electricity needs of its Illinois data center.

The company that helped create the project was Orion.

The company that took the controlling interest and brought it through construction was EDF.

The corporate name changed.

The turbines stayed where the developer had put the project.

Golden Hills took more than 17 years

Then there is Golden Hills.

Orion began working with farmers, ranchers and local officials in Sherman County, Oregon, around 2000.

Avangrid Renewables didn't acquire the 200 MW Golden Hills Wind Farm from the Orion/Eolian joint venture until September 2017.

Construction began in 2020.

Commercial operation arrived in April 2022.

Avangrid's own announcement credits Orion with working in Sherman County since 2000. Eolian CEO Aaron Zubaty described Orion's development effort as lasting more than 17 years.

That's useful context in Calcasieu Parish.

Persimmon has been in development since 2019.

Seven years can feel like a long time when a project suddenly becomes a local controversy.

In Orion's business, seven years isn't necessarily long at all.

Dunns Bridge got another owner too

Orion's project portfolio includes Dunns Bridge Solar in Indiana: 700 MW of solar paired with a 75 MW four-hour battery-storage system.

But following that project requires following the companies.

Orion developed it.

NextEra Energy Resources acquired the development interest and constructed it.

NIPSCO ultimately became the utility owner.

The development company, builder and long-term owner were not the same company.

That distinction becomes important when somebody asks a deceptively simple question about Persimmon:

Who will own it?

Right now, Orion is the developer.

That does not establish who will own the facility if it reaches operation.

Ash Creek followed the pattern

The 408 MW Ash Creek Solar project in Texas offers another example.

Development began in 2016 under Orion Power Generation LLC, a joint venture between Orion Renewable Energy Group and Eolian.

Primergy acquired the project in 2021.

Then came the serious money.

Primergy closed $588 million in debt financing in 2024, followed by another $350 million in tax-equity financing.

Microsoft signed a long-term power purchase agreement.

Ash Creek entered commercial operation in July 2025.

Nearly a decade separated the beginning of development from operation.

Orion was there at the beginning.

Primergy owned it at the end.

And there is a data-center footnote

Pilot Hill gives Orion's history an interesting connection to another industry suddenly appearing in North Calcasieu.

Data centers.

When EDF acquired its 96 percent interest in the Orion-developed Pilot Hill project in 2014, the wind farm already had its 20-year Microsoft agreement.

EDF said the project was located on the same electrical grid serving Microsoft's Chicago-area data center.

When Pilot Hill reached commercial operation the following year, EDF said Microsoft's agreement would cover the equivalent of 100 percent of the energy needs of Microsoft's Illinois data center.

Another Orion-originated project, Ash Creek, eventually signed a long-term Microsoft power agreement after Primergy acquired it.

None of that connects Persimmon to Azimuth Renewables' proposed data-center site north of Moss Bluff.

337.news has found no evidence that Orion and Azimuth are developing their projects together, that Persimmon would power an Azimuth project, or that Microsoft has anything to do with either Calcasieu Parish development.

But Orion is not unfamiliar with the electricity demands created by large technology companies.

That stays in the file.

Now put Persimmon beside that history

Persimmon is currently described by Orion as a 762 MW solar and battery-storage project representing approximately $2.4 billion of investment in Calcasieu Parish.

The company says it would create more than 400 construction jobs.

It projects approximately $26 million in average annual local property-tax revenue.

Orion also says the project could generate enough electricity annually to equal the consumption of approximately 130,000 average Louisiana homes.

These aren't parish numbers.

They're Orion's.

And some of them have moved.

Earlier public descriptions of Persimmon put the project at approximately 1,000 MW and $1.7 billion.

The current version is smaller by megawatts and larger by dollars.

That's development.

Projects change before they're built.

But there's another number worth watching.

Earlier reporting cited an Orion estimate of roughly $470 million in local tax revenue over 35 years.

The company's current website now advertises approximately $26 million in average local property taxes every year.

Twenty-six million multiplied by 35 is $910 million.

That doesn't prove the figures conflict. The underlying assumptions may have changed. Project cost changed. Tax treatment may have changed. The time periods or categories included in the estimates may be different.

But $470 million and $910 million are far enough apart to deserve an explanation.

We've added that to the questions.

Orion is offering money beyond the tax bill

Persimmon's pitch isn't limited to parish tax revenue.

Orion has created what it calls a Solar Neighbor Program.

Residences within one-third of a mile of the project that aren't owned by participating landowners would be eligible for annual payments beginning with construction.

Orion says those payments would increase 30 percent every ten years and stay with the property, meaning future owners would continue receiving them.

The company is also proposing financial support for local emergency services and recreation entities.

Orion's current project materials describe more than a power plant.

They're describing a long-term economic arrangement with the surrounding community.

The community hasn't agreed yet.

The argument is increasingly about place

State Rep. Brett Geymann opposes the current location.

Ward 1 Police Juror Darby Quinn has said concerns about land use and preserving the rural character of the area resonate with him and that other places in the parish may be more appropriate.

District 2 Police Juror Mike Smith has also opposed the project.

District 11 Police Juror Roger Marcantel presents a more complicated piece of the record.

Marcantel signed a right-of-way and servitude agreement with Orion. KPLC reports that the solar facility itself would not sit on his property, but transmission infrastructure would cross it.

Marcantel told KPLC he believes solar development is eventually coming to Calcasieu Parish but said he supports what his constituents want.

There is no evidence in that fact alone of misconduct.

It does show how far a 4,700-acre energy project reaches beyond the property underneath the panels.

A project this size needs corridors.

Orion says this isn't Moss Bluff. Its own community plan says otherwise.

The geography has become part of Orion's response to opposition.

Orion told KPLC that Persimmon isn't actually in Moss Bluff proper. The company says the project is entirely on timberland, that its closest boundary is more than 1.5 miles north of Joe Miller Road, and that most of the project lies west of North Perkins Ferry Road.

Technically, that describes where Orion says the panels would begin.

It doesn't settle what community the project belongs to.

Orion's own public-relations campaign makes that considerably clearer.

When the company explains who should benefit from Persimmon, it identifies institutions in Ward 1 and Ward 6. Its proposed community investments include money for fire protection and recreation in both wards, along with scholarship commitments benefiting students at Sam Houston High School and DeQuincy High School.

DeQuincy makes sense. The project extends toward Ward 6.

But Sam Houston High School isn't an accidental choice.

Neither are Ward 1 fire protection or Ward 1 recreation.

Those are institutions serving the Moss Bluff community.

There also isn't an incorporated Town of Moss Bluff with a municipal boundary that Persimmon can simply sit outside of. Moss Bluff is an unincorporated community. Drawing attention to the project's distance north of Joe Miller Road may describe its proximity to the denser residential core, but it doesn't make Ward 1—or the people who use its schools, fire services and recreation facilities—disappear.

Orion appears to understand that perfectly well when it talks about benefits.

Its public pitch asks Moss Bluff and DeQuincy-area institutions to share in the money generated by Persimmon, while its response to criticism asks people to be more restrictive about which community gets to claim the project.

Those positions don't fit together particularly well.

If Sam Houston High School is close enough to Persimmon to receive Orion-funded scholarships, Ward 1 fire and recreation are local enough to receive annual funding, and nearby Ward 1 homeowners are close enough to qualify for Orion's Solar Neighbor Program, then describing Persimmon as a project affecting the Moss Bluff area isn't some geographic invention by its opponents.

Orion's own community-benefit plan recognizes the same footprint.

The project may be north of the residential core of Moss Bluff.

That's a useful description.

Saying it isn't a Moss Bluff project at all is harder to square with Orion's own material.

When Orion talks about where the panels are, Moss Bluff is somewhere else. When Orion talks about where the money goes, Moss Bluff is right next door.

The project still doesn't have permission to build

For all the years of work, leases, options, servitudes and money being discussed, Persimmon hasn't crossed the threshold that matters most to the public.

It doesn't have permission to build.

As of early September, parish officials said Orion had not submitted a permit application for the project.

Orion has said it cannot construct Persimmon without parish approval.

So two apparently contradictory descriptions of Persimmon are true at the same time.

It's early.

And it's been happening for years.

That's what the courthouse records explain.

What Orion's history tells us to watch

There is nothing unusual about a developer selling a developed energy project.

There is nothing inherently suspicious about securing land before filing for local approval.

There is nothing remarkable about a utility, infrastructure fund or another developer eventually owning a project originated by somebody else.

This is how the industry works.

But knowing how the industry works changes the questions.

The question isn't only whether Orion gets permission to build Persimmon.

It's what Orion is building as a development asset.

Who finances it?

Who takes the construction risk?

Who signs the power agreement?

Who owns the project company when construction begins?

Who owns it when the first megawatt reaches the grid?

Orion's history says those answers don't necessarily have to be Orion.

The file starts in 2019

The easiest version of this story is a fight over a solar farm.

For it.

Against it.

Pick a side.

We're interested in what happened before there were sides.

Orion says it started developing Persimmon in 2019.

Then came the land agreements.

Leases.

Options.

Servitudes.

Rights-of-way.

Thousands of acres gradually became one development footprint.

By 2026, Orion was modeling the view from the road

The courthouse records show the land work.

Another document shows how far the physical planning had progressed.

Orion commissioned Stantec to prepare visual simulations of the proposed Persimmon project from roads surrounding the site. The package doesn't show a generic solar farm. It uses photographs taken from specific locations around the proposed project and overlays the panels, fencing, access roads, landscaping and vegetation Orion says would remain.

The viewpoints include Dunn Ferry Road, North Perkins Ferry Road, Gillis Cutoff and Hickory Branch Road.

At one Dunn Ferry Road viewpoint, Stantec modeled the proposed landscaping at Year 1 and again at Year 5–7, showing how screening is expected to change as vegetation matures.

This is well beyond drawing a 4,700-acre circle on a map.

By the time Persimmon became a major public fight, Orion had a consultant modeling what the project could look like from the roads outside it.

View the full Persimmon visual-simulation package (PDF)

That's the part of large-scale real-estate development people rarely see.

By the time the sign goes up, somebody may have been working the land file for years.

Orion has been doing that work around the country since 1998. Some projects took more than a decade. Some were eventually sold. Some wound up owned by major utilities. At least two Orion-originated projects eventually carried long-term agreements with Microsoft.

Now Orion has a file open in Calcasieu Parish.

So do we.

The public meetings will tell us what people think about Persimmon.

The records will tell us what Persimmon actually is.

And we're still reading them.

About the Author

I’m Dalton Barron, a licensed real estate agent serving Southwest Louisiana.

I spend a lot of time looking at real estate that never makes it into a listing description: ownership records, land assemblages, development plans, servitudes, zoning, infrastructure and the transactions happening before a project becomes public knowledge.

That same work carries over to my clients.

If you're trying to understand a piece of property, what it's worth, what is happening around it, or what the records actually say, bring me the address or parcel. I'll dig into it

Buying or selling isn't a requirement.

Sometimes you just need somebody willing to look past the listing and into the file.

Dalton Barron
Real Broker, LLC
C. 337.764.1754
O. 855.450.0442
Licensed by the LREC
Main Office: Baton Rouge, LA

About 337.NEWS

337.NEWS is an independent Southwest Louisiana publication built around a simple idea: some local stories deserve more than the first answer.

We follow land, money, development, public records, business and local government—especially when the pieces don't quite fit together at first glance.

Sometimes that means reading the deed. Sometimes it means finding the company behind the company, tracing who controls the land, or going back through years of records to understand what is happening now.

We don't need every story to become a scandal.

We just want to know what the record actually says.