SAN ANTONIO — A solar farm built as part of an agreement between CPS Energy and OCI Solar Power has begun generating almost 40 megawatts of electricity from a site in Brackettville.

The plant, Alamo 4, is the third to produce power under the CPS-OCI deal, which calls for OCI to construct plants to provide 400 megawatts of electricity by late 2016 or early 2017.

The 39.6 megawatts of electricity generated by the Alamo 4 plant can power more than 7,900 homes on the hottest afternoons. The solar plant sits on a 600-acre privately owned site and employed 550 during its construction, OCI Solar said.

The solar farm's location about 90 miles from San Antonio isn't a problem, because the solar-generated electricity will be fed into the Texas electrical grid.

CPS can pull the same amount of electricity from the grid, an arrangement that also applies to the utility's wind-energy and nuclear-power contracts.

City-owned CPS Energy has a goal of generating or purchasing 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

When CPS and OCI signed the deal in July 2012, CPS officials said the 400-megawatt project was the nation's largest solar project by a municipal utility.

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The 25-year agreement calls for CPS to buy all of OCI's power for the duration of the contract. It also required OCI to build solar plants, move its headquarters from Atlanta to San Antonio and provide 805 jobs, with most created by the company's partners.

OCI Solar's other plants now in operation include the 41-megawatt Alamo 1 at 2361 S. Blue Wing Road and 4.4-megawatt Alamo 2 at 8203 Binz-Engleman Road.

Construction now will begin on 5-megawatt Alamo 3 at Loop 1604 and Interstate 10, which will be the first to use solar panels from partner Mission Solar Energy's $100 million plant at Brooks City Base, OCI said in a statement.

Also, OCI said construction is to begin on its Alamo 5 solar plant in Uvalde, which will be the biggest to date at 100 megawatts.

The five plants take OCI Solar to about 190 megawatts, shy of its 400-megawatt agreement with CPS.

CPS Energy spokesman Scott Wudel said OCI will build two more plants of considerable size.

OCI spokeswoman Sara Krueger said it's likely the next two plants will be built outside San Antonio. She said she didn't have information about the specific size of each or when more information about them will be available.

OCI CEO Tony Dorazio wasn't available for comment Thursday.

vvaughan@express-news.net