Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) to procure solar energy in Texas.
The social media firm has signed a 156MW PPA with EDP Renewables to procure energy from the 240MW Cattlemen Solar Park in Milam County.
“As our global infrastructure continues to grow, partnerships like the one with EDP Renewables are increasingly important for us to meet our ambitious sustainability goals,” said Urvi Parekh, head of renewable energy at Meta. “Investing in local communities is important to us, and we are proud that this project is bringing new solar energy to the grid, providing construction jobs, and contributing to local water savings.”
Through its fully owned subsidiary EDP Renewables North America LLC (EDPR NA), EDPR will construct, own, and operate Cattlemen Solar Park, which has an estimated capital investment of approximately $280 million and is anticipated to be operational in 2023.
“EDP Renewables is pleased to collaborate, once again, with Meta on another renewable energy project,” said Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, CEO of EDP & EDPR. “Projects like Cattlemen Solar Park reinforce our commitment to accelerate the energy transition, while providing clean energy and economic support and opportunities to the local communities in which we operate.”
Meta currently operates one data center campus in Texas, in Fort Worth; the company broke ground on the 2.6 million sq ft facility in 2015, and brought it online in 2017. In March the company announced plans for a second data center in the state, located in Temple.
Cattlemen marks the second PPA EDP Renewables and Meta have executed, with the first being a 139MW PPA for the 200MW Headwaters II Wind Farm in Indiana. The companies are also partnering on EDPR’s 200MW Randolph Solar Park, where the entire capacity of the project will be dedicated to supporting Meta’s data center in Mesa, Arizona. In total, EDPR and Meta are working together to bring 495MW of renewable energy to the grid.
EDPR currently owns and operates six wind energy projects in the state of Texas, totaling 1,089MW of capacity.
