# The 10,356-acre solar project quietly taking shape near Hineston

> Treaty Oak Clean Energy — owned by funds tied to Cleco's co-owner, which also bankrolls a local data center — wants federal approval for a 16-sq-mi solar buildout on Rapides/Vernon timberland. No public announcement. The only comment window closes Aug. 2.

**By:** Bentley Hensel  
**Published:** 2026-07-18  
**Updated:** 2026-07-18  
**Canonical:** https://kingfish.la/about-sunstripe-solar  
**License:** CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)  
**Cite as:** Bentley Hensel (2026). The 10,356-acre solar project quietly taking shape near Hineston. Kingfish. https://kingfish.la/about-sunstripe-solar

---

A Texas company wants to build one of the largest solar projects in Louisiana history on timberland around Hineston, and the first formal public notice of any kind appeared eleven days ago — in a federal permit filing most people will never see.

The project is called [Sunstripe](https://www.sunstripe.com/?ref=kingfish.la). The developer is [Treaty Oak Clean Energy, LLC](https://www.treatyoakcleanenergy.com/?ref=kingfish.la) of Austin, Texas, working through a subsidiary named TO LA Solar 1, LLC. On July 13, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' New Orleans District published a [public notice](https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/Public-Notices/Article/4537854/mvn-2026-00184-wll/?ref=kingfish.la) — permit application MVN-2026-00184-WLL — asking for comments on the company's request to build:

-   a **4,554-acre Phase 1 solar array and substation**,
-   a **5,688-acre Phase 2 solar array**, and
-   a **9-mile, 230-kilovolt transmission line** on steel monopoles, occupying another 114 acres, to carry the power to the grid.

That's **10,356 acres in total — about 16 square miles**, an area roughly 60 percent the size of the city of Alexandria. The project site is centered at 2307 LA Highway 121 in the Hineston community, in the pine country where Rapides Parish meets Vernon Parish. The [notice and its 47 pages of maps and drawings](https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p16021coll15/id/11069?ref=kingfish.la) are public. Kingfish found no press release, no news coverage, and no public announcement of the project anywhere before that notice appeared.

**Comments are due to the Corps by Aug. 2.** Instructions are at the bottom of this story.

## The short version

-   Treaty Oak, owned by funds managed by Australian financial giant Macquarie, has been quietly developing Sunstripe since at least spring 2023, when an affiliate entered the regional grid operator's connection queue — a step that requires proof the company already controls the land.
-   The federal wetlands permit now open for comment is one of **three** layers of government approval the project needs. The other two — a state solar permit and a Rapides Parish solar farm permit — show no sign of having started.
-   Rapides Parish adopted its own solar ordinance in June 2025 and opted out of the state's siting rules in December. Before construction, the ordinance requires Treaty Oak to hold a public meeting in the community, post a decommissioning bond, submit economic and wildlife studies, and pay the parish a permit fee equal to **1 percent of construction costs**.
-   Grid records say the project can't realistically deliver power before 2028. The paperwork being filed now locks in land, permits, and corporate structure years ahead of that.
-   Nobody has said who will buy the electricity. The corporate family tree — which connects the developer, the local utility, and the company building the Delta Forge data center near Boyce — raises questions Kingfish has put to every party involved.

## What the federal filing says

The Corps notice covers one narrow question: whether Treaty Oak may disturb federally protected wetlands and streams. Under [Section 404 of the Clean Water Act](https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/?ref=kingfish.la), anyone who wants to fill, clear, or build in "waters of the United States" — including forested wetlands — needs a permit from the Corps first.

According to the notice, the solar panels themselves are sited to avoid jurisdictional wetlands entirely. The impacts come from the 9-mile transmission line — what the industry calls a "gen-tie," the private power line that carries electricity from a plant to the grid. Building it would permanently convert **18.5 acres of forested wetlands** to lower-growing cover: 8.53 acres of cypress/tupelo swamp, 5.03 acres of bottomland hardwoods, 2.86 acres of pine savanna, and 2.02 acres of pine plantation, plus about a hundredth of an acre of permanent fill where poles go in. The line crosses the upper Calcasieu River. Treaty Oak proposes to offset the damage by purchasing credits from a wetlands mitigation bank — in plain terms, paying for restoration work somewhere else in the watershed.

The Corps' initial wildlife screening found the project "may affect" two federally protected species: the **Louisiana pinesnake** — one of the rarest snakes in North America, native to the longleaf pine woods of west-central Louisiana and East Texas — and the **northern long-eared bat**. That finding has been forwarded to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for consultation. The company's own maps show the Phase 2 site sitting against the Kisatchie National Forest boundary, with **Cooters Bog** — a natural area known for its carnivorous pitcher plants — and mapped pitcher plant habitat flagged at the site's southwestern edge.

Two caveats worth knowing. First, the Corps itself states that the information in the notice was furnished by the applicant and has not been independently verified. Second, there's a geography discrepancy: the notice text says the project is "within Rapides Parish," but the applicant's own engineering drawings are titled "Rapides and Vernon Parishes," and the maps show the parish line running through both solar sites. Kingfish has asked the Corps to clarify.

## Who is Treaty Oak — and who is behind Treaty Oak

Treaty Oak is an independent power producer — a company that builds power plants and sells the electricity — and [a portfolio company of Macquarie Asset Management](https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2026/01/09/treaty-oak-clean-energy-begins-construction-on-385-mw-louisiana-solar-portfolio/?ref=kingfish.la), the giant Australian investment manager, with a reported 17.3-gigawatt development pipeline across the U.S.

Sunstripe would be Treaty Oak's third and by far largest Louisiana project. In October 2025 the company [announced power purchase agreements with Meta](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251030625910/en/Treaty-Oak-Clean-Energy-and-Meta-Sign-Long-Term-Power-Purchase-Agreements-for-Two-Louisiana-Solar-Projects?ref=kingfish.la) for the 185-megawatt Beekman project in Morehouse Parish and the 200-megawatt Hollis Creek project in Sabine Parish — deals Meta's energy chief tied directly to powering its AI data center in Richland Parish. Treaty Oak [closed roughly $809 million in combined financing and started construction on both](https://www.treatyoakcleanenergy.com/news/treaty-oak-clean-energy-llc-closes-financing-in-louisiana-january-8-2026?ref=kingfish.la) in early 2026, targeting operation in late 2027. Dashiell, the high-voltage contractor on those projects, is the same firm whose name appears on Sunstripe's transmission drawings.

"Our commitment in Louisiana extends well beyond these two projects," Treaty Oak CEO Chris Elrod [told POWER magazine](https://www.powermag.com/meta-signs-ppas-with-treaty-oak-clean-energy-for-louisiana-solar-projects/?ref=kingfish.la) in November. Sunstripe appears to be what he meant.

The Macquarie connection is where central Louisiana readers should pay attention, because funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management currently sit on three sides of the region's energy map:

-   **The developer.** Treaty Oak, as above.
-   **The utility.** A Macquarie-led investor group [took Cleco private in 2016](https://www.cleco.com/media/press-releases/detail/2016/04/13/north-american-led-investor-group-completes-acquisition-of-cleco?ref=kingfish.la) in a deal valued at about $4.7 billion. On April 27 of this year, [Macquarie, BCI, and Manulife announced an agreement to sell Cleco](https://www.macquarie.com/au/en/about/news/2026/macquarie-asset-management-led-consortium-to-sell-cleco-to-stonepeak-and-bernhard-capital-partners.html?ref=kingfish.la) to Stonepeak and Baton Rouge-based Bernhard Capital Partners — a deal [reported at $5.75 to $6 billion](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-27/stonepeak-and-bernhard-to-buy-cleco-from-macquarie-led-group?ref=kingfish.la) that is still pending regulatory approval, including from the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Until it closes, Macquarie-managed funds remain co-owners of the Pineville-headquartered utility — and Sunstripe's transmission line runs straight to a Cleco substation.
-   **The data center company.** In January 2025, Macquarie Asset Management [agreed to invest up to $5 billion](https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/117/applied-digital-agrees-to-build-a-partnership-with?ref=kingfish.la) in Applied Digital's high-performance computing business, taking a 15 percent equity stake in that segment, with the [right to fund the company's future data center campuses](https://www.macquarie.com/us/en/about/news/2025/mam-closes-first-investment-in-partnership-with-applied-digital-providing-up-to-us5billion-in-funding-to-support-high-performance-computing-growth.html?ref=kingfish.la). Applied Digital is the company building **Delta Forge 1**, the 430-megawatt AI data center campus near Boyce that [broke ground in January](https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/144/applied-digital-breaks-ground-on-delta-forge-1-a-430-mw-ai?ref=kingfish.la) and in April [signed a $7.5 billion, 15-year lease](https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/149/applied-digital-announces-new-u-s-based-high?ref=kingfish.la) with an unnamed U.S. hyperscaler for 300 megawatts of computing load, with operations expected to begin in mid-2027. Kingfish's reporting has identified APLD ALX-01 LLC — a subsidiary listed in [Applied Digital's most recent annual report](https://ir.applieddigital.com/sec-filings/annual-reports/content/0001144879-25-000021/0001144879-25-000021.pdf?ref=kingfish.la), which never mentions the word "Louisiana" — as the entity behind the Boyce campus.

Two fairness points. Different Macquarie-managed funds, with different investors, hold these different stakes — a shared manager is not the same thing as a single owner, and the Cleco stake is on its way out the door. And nothing in the public record says who will buy Sunstripe's power, or that it has anything to do with Delta Forge. Treaty Oak's interconnection request predates any public word of the data center by more than two years. Kingfish has asked Treaty Oak, Cleco, Macquarie, and Applied Digital directly.

## What the grid records show

Sunstripe has been in the works far longer than eleven days. Records from [MISO](https://www.misoenergy.org/?ref=kingfish.la) — the multi-state grid operator Louisiana belongs to — show project **J3479**: a 200-megawatt solar project at a point of interconnection called "Hineston," in Rapides Parish, with Cleco Power LLC as the transmission owner. The request was filed in MISO's 2023 study cycle, meaning by that spring. MISO's rules require an applicant to document control of the project land when it applies — so Treaty Oak had Hineston-area acreage locked up by 2023, two years before anyone in parish government voted on a solar ordinance.

The queue entry lists a February 2027 in-service date. That date is not going to happen. [MISO's own current schedule](https://cdn.misoenergy.org/Definitive%20Planning%20Phase%20Schedule629192.pdf?ref=kingfish.la) shows Sunstripe's study cycle — 23 projects totaling 4,676 megawatts across MISO's southern region — still in the middle of its second study phase, with the interconnection agreements (the contracts that actually let a plant plug in) not projected to be signed until **August 2027 at the earliest**, a date that slipped by 15 days in the last month alone. Realistically, that puts construction and first power in **2028 or later**.

One more detail: 200 megawatts accounts for roughly one of Sunstripe's two phases. The engineering drawings for "Sunstripe II" list a facility of about 224 megawatts on its own. Kingfish has not identified a second interconnection request, and the project's total planned capacity has not been disclosed.

## The rules Sunstripe still has to clear

The federal wetlands permit is the only public process running right now. It is not the biggest hurdle. There are three layers:

**1\. The Corps** — the Section 404 permit described above, plus a state water quality certification from LDEQ that "may be required." As of this week, Kingfish could find no LDEQ file opened for the project.

**2\. The State of Louisiana.** [Act 279 of 2025](https://legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1425593&ref=kingfish.la) made it illegal to build or operate any solar facility of 75 acres or more without a permit from the state — now the [Department of Conservation and Energy](https://www.dce.louisiana.gov/page/solar-permitting?ref=kingfish.la). The law also wrote statewide siting standards (setbacks, noise limits, decommissioning security) for large solar farms, applying to projects that start construction after Jan. 1, 2026 — with one big exception, which brings us to:

**3\. Rapides Parish.** On June 9, 2025, the Rapides Parish Police Jury [unanimously adopted a Solar Farm Ordinance](https://kingfish.la/agencies/rapides-parish-police-jury/meetings/2025-06-01/) drafted by the Rapides Area Planning Commission ([official minutes](https://rppj.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/June-9-2025-Minutes.pdf?ref=kingfish.la)). Then on Dec. 8, the jury [voted to opt out of the state's siting standards](https://kingfish.la/agencies/rapides-parish-police-jury/meetings/2025-12-01/) — a move Act 279 allows for parishes with their own ordinances ([official minutes](https://rppj.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/December-8-2025-Jury-Minutes-Transcribed.pdf?ref=kingfish.la)). The practical effect: in Rapides Parish, the parish's rules — not the state's — govern where and how Sunstripe can be built. The state permit is still required either way.

The parish ordinance has real teeth. Before construction, a solar developer must:

-   obtain a parish solar farm permit, reviewed by the planning commission and approved by the police jury — a permit that **cannot be transferred to a new owner without jury approval**;
-   **hold its own public meeting in the community** at least 21 days before the planning commission takes the application up;
-   submit a third-party **economic impact report**, a **wildlife report**, and a **drainage plan** showing no adverse impacts within a mile;
-   record its land leases in the parish conveyance records and give copies to the planning commission;
-   honor setbacks of 100 feet from roads and property lines, and 500 feet from any occupied home, business, or church;
-   post a **decommissioning bond** — a financial guarantee, of at least $500,000 and sized to the engineer-estimated cost of removing the whole facility someday, with the landowner as primary beneficiary — so taxpayers aren't left holding dead panels; and
-   pay a **$10,000 application fee plus a permit fee equal to 1 percent of the project's total construction cost.** For scale: Treaty Oak's other two Louisiana projects each cost roughly $400 million to finance. If Sunstripe's phases are in that range, a 1 percent fee would run into the millions of dollars — though the ordinance doesn't address how the fee applies to a project that straddles the parish line.

The ordinance also reserves the jury's right to accept, reject, or modify any **industrial tax exemption (ITEP)** — Louisiana's program that can wipe out most of a project's property taxes for years — while explicitly leaving the door open to a **PILOT**, a negotiated payment in lieu of taxes. As of a July 17 search, no ITEP filing for Treaty Oak, TO LA Solar, or any Sunstripe-related entity appears in Louisiana Economic Development's project database for Rapides or Vernon parish.

And Vernon Parish? The maps show Phase 2 crossing the line. Kingfish could not locate a Vernon Parish solar ordinance or Act 279 opt-out as of publication — if none exists, the _state's_ siting standards would govern the Vernon side, meaning one project could be built under two different sets of rules depending on which side of the parish line a panel sits. We've asked the Vernon Parish Police Jury.

As of publication, Kingfish found no record that Treaty Oak has applied for either the parish permit or the state permit. We've asked the planning commission, the state, and the company.

## Timeline: how we got here

-   **Spring 2023** — TO LA Solar 1 enters the MISO interconnection queue (project J3479, 200 MW, "Hineston" point of interconnection, Cleco transmission). MISO rules mean the company documented control of the land by then.
-   **June 9, 2025** — Rapides Parish Police Jury unanimously adopts its Solar Farm Ordinance.
-   **Aug. 1, 2025** — Act 279 takes effect: a state permit is now required for any 75-plus-acre solar facility in Louisiana.
-   **Oct. 30, 2025** — Treaty Oak announces Meta power deals for its Morehouse and Sabine parish solar projects, tied to Meta's Richland Parish data center.
-   **Dec. 8, 2025** — Rapides Parish opts out of the state's solar siting standards, keeping its own rules in force.
-   **Jan. 8, 2026** — Treaty Oak closes about $809 million in financing and starts construction on Beekman and Hollis Creek.
-   **Jan. 22, 2026** — Applied Digital breaks ground on the 430 MW Delta Forge 1 data center campus near Boyce.
-   **Jan.–May 2026** — Treaty Oak's consultants produce Sunstripe's wetland surveys and engineering drawings (the dates printed on the drawings in the Corps file).
-   **April 23, 2026** — Applied Digital announces a $7.5 billion, 300 MW hyperscaler lease at Delta Forge 1.
-   **April 27, 2026** — Macquarie-led owners agree to sell Cleco to Stonepeak and Bernhard Capital; regulatory approval pending.
-   **July 13, 2026** — The Corps publishes the Sunstripe public notice.
-   **Aug. 2, 2026** — Public comments due.
-   **What's ahead** — a state solar permit, a parish permit (with its required community meeting), a Fish and Wildlife consultation on the pinesnake, and — per MISO's current schedule — no grid connection agreement before late 2027. Realistic first power: 2028 or beyond.

## What we don't know yet

In the spirit of receipts over rhetoric, here is the honest list: who owns and leased the 10,000-plus acres; who will buy the power; the project's total capacity and price tag; whether Treaty Oak will seek a tax exemption, a PILOT, or neither; whether Delta Forge or any data center figures in the plan; whether the required Vernon Parish rules even exist; and when — or whether — the parish and state applications will be filed. Kingfish sent detailed questions to Treaty Oak, the Corps, the Rapides Area Planning Commission, the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy, Cleco, the Vernon Parish Police Jury, Macquarie, and Applied Digital on July 17. We will publish their answers.

## How to comment — before Aug. 2

Any member of the public can comment on the federal permit. The Corps says comments are used to decide whether to issue, modify, condition, or deny the permit, and to determine whether a public hearing is needed.

-   **Online:** through the Corps' [Regulatory Request System](https://rrs.usace.army.mil/rrs?ref=kingfish.la)
-   **Email:** michael.h.herrmann@usace.army.mil — reference **Permit Application MVN-2026-00184-WLL**
-   **Mail:** U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, Attention: Michael Herrmann, Public Notice: MVN-2026-00184-WLL, 7400 Leake Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118-3651
-   **Want more time?** You can request an extension of the comment period — the request must be specific, must arrive before Aug. 2, and cannot stretch the total window beyond 30 days.
-   **Want a hearing?** Anyone may request a public hearing in writing within the comment period. State your reasons specifically; the Corps says hearing requests will be granted unless it finds the issues raised insubstantial.
-   **Know before you write:** everything you submit — including your name, phone number, and address — becomes part of the public administrative record and can be released under federal records law.

## The documents

Every source for this story is public: the [Corps public notice](https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/Public-Notices/Article/4537854/mvn-2026-00184-wll/?ref=kingfish.la) and [full drawing set](https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p16021coll15/id/11069?ref=kingfish.la); [MISO's interconnection queue](https://www.misoenergy.org/?ref=kingfish.la) _(_ and [study schedule](https://cdn.misoenergy.org/Definitive%20Planning%20Phase%20Schedule629192.pdf?ref=kingfish.la); the Rapides Parish Police Jury minutes of [June 9, 2025](https://rppj.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/June-9-2025-Minutes.pdf?ref=kingfish.la) and [Dec. 8, 2025](https://rppj.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/December-8-2025-Jury-Minutes-Transcribed.pdf?ref=kingfish.la), archived with agendas at [kingfish.la](https://kingfish.la/agencies/rapides-parish-police-jury); [Act 279 of 2025](https://legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1425593&ref=kingfish.la) and the state's [solar permitting guidance](https://www.dce.louisiana.gov/page/solar-permitting?ref=kingfish.la); [Applied Digital's FY2025 annual report](https://ir.applieddigital.com/sec-filings/annual-reports/content/0001144879-25-000021/0001144879-25-000021.pdf?ref=kingfish.la) and press releases; and company announcements from [Treaty Oak](https://www.treatyoakcleanenergy.com/news/treaty-oak-clean-energy-llc-closes-financing-in-louisiana-january-8-2026?ref=kingfish.la), [Macquarie](https://www.macquarie.com/au/en/about/news/2026/macquarie-asset-management-led-consortium-to-sell-cleco-to-stonepeak-and-bernhard-capital-partners.html?ref=kingfish.la), and [Cleco](https://www.cleco.com/media/press-releases/detail/2016/04/13/north-american-led-investor-group-completes-acquisition-of-cleco?ref=kingfish.la).

* * *

_Kingfish contacted every company and agency named in this story on July 17 with detailed questions. Responses received before publication are included above; any received afterward will be added here._

_Corrections and tips: tips@kingfish.la._

---

## Citation formats

### BibTeX

```bibtex
@misc{kingfish-about-sunstripe-solar,
  author = {Bentley Hensel},
  title = {The 10,356-acre solar project quietly taking shape near Hineston},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {The Kingfish Project},
  howpublished = {\url{https://kingfish.la/about-sunstripe-solar}},
  note = {Accessed: July 18, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0}
}
```

### CSL-JSON

```json
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    "id": "kingfish-about-sunstripe-solar",
    "type": "article",
    "title": "The 10,356-acre solar project quietly taking shape near Hineston",
    "author": [
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