Google has signed a 942MW power purchase agreement (PPA) with SB Energy to procure solar energy in Texas.
SB Energy Global, LLC (SB Energy) this week announced that the search and cloud giant will purchase approximately seventy-five percent of the renewable energy produced by four of its solar projects under development.
Located in Texas and totaling 1.2GW, the Orion 1-3 and Eiffel solar projects are expected to be operational by mid-2024.
The PPA supports Google’s commitment to operating every hour of every day on carbon-free energy by 2030 by supporting the energy needs of the company’s data center in Midlothian, Texas, and a cloud region in Dallas.
“SB Energy is thrilled to join forces with Google to provide clean energy to match Google’s Texas data center consumption,” said SB Energy co-CEO Rich Hossfeld. “We share Google’s relentless drive to achieve critical climate goals through innovative infrastructure and technology and look forward to expanding our relationship with Google as we aim to deliver renewable energy that is local, reliable, and matched to load.”
Eiffel is a 314MW project in development in Lamar County. Orion I, II, and III – all located in Milam County – will offer 258MW, 302MW, and 315MW respectively once complete.
While Google currently purchases 100 percent of its energy through renewable contracts and offsets, it plans to supply all of its data centers with 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030.
The agreement is Google’s largest combined clean energy transaction in Texas to date.
Sana Ouji, Energy Lead at Google, said: “Within the decade we’re aiming for every Google data center to operate on clean electricity every hour of every day. This goal requires us to continue to grow our carbon-free energy portfolio. We’re excited to partner with SB Energy to bring online four solar projects that will meaningfully grow our portfolio of renewable energy projects in the region and bring additional clean energy jobs to Texas."
SB Energy currently owns and operates 1.7 GW of solar capacity and will have started construction on an additional 1.3 GW by early next year.
