Facebook has signed a power purchase agreement for a 61.6-megawatt portion of Apex Clean Energy’s solar project under development in Campbell County, Virginia.
The 80-MW project near Altavista is slated to be Apex’s first renewable energy facility on the East Coast and its largest solar project to date, the company said. It’s expected to become operational next year.
Apex added that the facility supports Facebook’s renewable energy goals and target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2020. Facebook has been investing billions of dollars on a new data center in eastern Henrico County, Virginia, powered entirely by renewables.
Urvi Parekh, head of renewable energy at Facebook, expressed appreciation for Apex’s partnership as the tech company works toward reaching a goal of supporting its global operations with 100% renewable energy in 2020.
The deal, which was announced on Thursday, is Facebook’s second renewable PPA with Apex in 2019. Earlier this year, the tech giant signed a deal for a 200-MW portion of Apex’s 525-MW Aviator Wind East project in Coke County, Texas, scheduled to begin operations in 2020.
In January, Digital Realty executed a virtual power purchase agreement with SunEnergy1 to secure around 80 megawatts of solar power on Facebook’s behalf. Last year Facebook was among the corporations that made the biggest renewable deals, according to the Business Renewables Center’s Deal Tracker.
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