EDP Renewables North America is sell 156MW of electricity to Facebook owner Meta from the 240MW Cattlemen solar farm in the US state of Texas under a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA).
Cattlemen, which is located in Milam County, represents an estimated capital investment of approximately $280m by EDPR and is anticipated to be operational in 2023.
It will provide economic benefits by way of payments to local landowners, an estimated $55m in taxes paid to support local schools and other essential community services, job opportunities during the project’s construction and operations, and an increase in money spent at businesses in the vicinity of the project.
Cattlemen marks the second PPA EDPR and Meta have executed, with the first being a 139MW deal for electricity from the 200MW Headwaters 2 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 centre in Mesa, Arizona.
In total, EDPR and Meta are working together to bring 495MW of renewable energy to the grid, supplying to Meta’s goal of supporting its global operations with 100% renewable energy.
Meta head of renewable energy Urvi Parekh said: “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,.
“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.”
EDPR North America chief executive Sandhya Ganapathy said: “EDP Renewables is pleased, once again, to collaborate with Meta on another renewable energy project and to be a part of its sustainability goals.
“We are committed to playing a leading role in the energy transition, and projects like Cattlemen enable us to achieve that while providing numerous economic benefits and opportunities to the local communities.”