Lamar CISD Clears Tesla’s $10.1 Billion Solar Plant, With $89,000 of Added M&O Revenue Over 16 Years

The Lamar Consolidated Independent School District board approved a taxable value limitation for Tesla’s proposed solar plant in Fort Bend County at its September 15 meeting. pv magazine reported the vote as 7-0. The filing puts Tesla’s commitment at $10.1 billion.

The site covers 3,057 acres at FM 1994 and FM 762, inside the district’s boundaries near Richmond. Tesla filed under the code name Project Crystal Sun. The plant would build solar cells and modules on one vertically integrated line, running from ingot pulling and wafer slicing through chemical coating, metallization and printing. The filing splits the money into $1.5 billion of real property and $8.6 billion of manufacturing equipment and other personal property. It states no annual output in gigawatts.

Tesla projects 9,712 permanent full-time positions by 2033 and 1,147 temporary construction positions at peak. Construction runs from 2026 through 2028. Commercial production starts in the first quarter of 2029.

What the agreement does

The agreement limits the taxable value of eligible property for school maintenance and operations (M&O) taxes for 10 years, from 2029 through 2038. It runs under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation Act. Under JETI the state comptroller reviews the application first. After a favorable recommendation, the governor and the school district each hold 30 days to decide. The comptroller recommended approval about two weeks before the board vote. Lamar CISD has now used its window. The governor has not acted.

District chief financial officer Greg Buchanan told trustees the agreement brings $89,000 in additional maintenance and operations revenue over 16 years. He put interest and sinking revenue at $335.5 million through 2063 and added bond capacity at $180.3 million. Superintendent Roosevelt Nivens said the district loses no tax revenue, because the state makes up what Tesla does not pay during the limitation.

Why It Matters

Those figures measure different pots of money. The limitation touches maintenance and operations, the fund that runs the district day to day. That is the pot the CFO valued at $89,000 over 16 years, about $5,600 a year. Debt service and bond capacity sit outside the limitation, which is why those numbers run far larger.

JETI routes the decision through the school board before the state closes it. Trustees price a $10.1 billion taxpayer against their own operating budget, and Lamar’s CFO put the operating number in front of the board before the vote rather than after it.

Two things stay open. Tesla has not settled the site, and still weighs Fort Bend County against another location. The filing also carries no capacity figure. A cell and module plant is judged on annual gigawatts, and without that number nobody outside the company is able to test the 9,712 jobs or the $8.6 billion of equipment against a production line of known size.

Critical Perspective

Every figure here is a projection attached to a plant that has not chosen its site. Tesla still weighs Fort Bend County against another location, and the trustees approved terms before that choice is settled. The $89,000 runs 16 years out. The $335.5 million of debt service runs to 2063, which is 37 years of forecast on a factory that starts production in 2029.

The superintendent’s assurance rests on the state making up what Tesla does not pay. That backfill is a school finance formula, not a contract, and nobody signed a 16-year guarantee of it. The jobs number carries the same caution. The figure of 9,712 positions by 2033 is what the applicant filed, and JETI applications are written to qualify. Without a stated gigawatt output, nobody outside Tesla is able to test whether 9,712 workers and $8.6 billion of equipment match a production line of that size.

Sources

• https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2026/09/18/teslas-10-1-billion-texas-solar-gigafactory-clears-key-tax-hurdle/
• https://communityimpact.com/katy-fulshear/development/lamar-cisd-votes-to-move-tesla-s-jeti-application-forward/
• https://abc13.com/story/lamar-cisd-votes-move-teslas-jeti-application-forward/19840135/
• https://electrek.co/2026/08/11/tesla-solar-cell-factory-texas-project-crystal-sun/

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