Meta Platforms Signs PPA with Ørsted for Arizona Operation

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In another move toward using green energy for its operations, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Incorporated (NASDAQ:META) (Menlo Park, California) has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with renewable energy developer Ørsted A/S (Fredericia, Denmark) and utilities provider Salt River Project (Tempe, Arizona) for the majority of the power generated by a large Arizona solar farm to help supply power to Meta's up-and-coming data center in Mesa, Arizona.

The new contract stipulates that Meta will receive a majority of the power generated by the Eleven Mile solar farm, which is being constructed by Ørsted in Casa Grande, about 45 miles southeast of Phoenix. Construction on the solar farm kicked off last summer. Upon completion, the facility will have a nameplate generation capacity of 300 megawatts (MW) and will be accompanied by a 300-MW battery energy storage system (BESS) for use when the sun isn't shining. The facility is expected to begin generating power in the second half of next year. According to news media, the plant will be the largest solar-plus-storage facility on Salt River Project's power grid. The energy from the plant not needed by Meta will be available to other Salt River Project customers. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database can click here for more details on the project.

The data center for which the power is designated is being constructed in Mesa, on the southeastern outskirts of Phoenix and about 40 miles north of the solar farm. The facility is being constructed in phases, with the first buildings approaching completion. This initial phase of construction entails building two data center buildings totaling 960,000 square feet that will help meet increased demand for Meta's services. A 51,000-square-foot warehouse building also is nearing completion at the site. A fourth building to house additional data center operations is under construction and expected to be completed early next year. Meta has plans to follow this with at least two more data center buildings that will begin construction in the future. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Industrial Manufacturing Project Database can click here for the related project reports.

The Eleven Mile solar plant is not the only Arizona solar plant with which Meta has a PPA in place. The company also has a contract for 50 MW of power from the 100-MW West Line solar plant in Eloy, completed by AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) (Arlington, Virginia) earlier this year. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Power Plant Database can click here for the plant profile.

Another PPA is in place with EDP Renewables North America LLC (Houston, Texas) for some of the output of the Brittlebush solar farm in Coolidge, about 20 miles east of Ørsted's Eleven Mile solar farm. Construction on the 200-MW facility is expected to both start and finish in 2024. Subscribers can click here to learn more.

The area surrounding Mesa may not be a bad place to establish renewable energy to help appease tech companies striving for green credentials. Industrial Info is tracking more than 35 separate project reports for data centers in Mesa, although many of these are different phases of single, overarching projects. Some of these projects are from some of the biggest names in the technology sector such as Google parent Alphabet Incorporated (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (Mountain View, California) and the web services division of Amazon.com Incorporated (NASDAQ:AMZN) (Seattle, Washington).

Construction began this summer on Alphabet's Mesa data center campus. This initial phase of construction includes constructing a 288,000-square-foot data center building with two server halls and a utility switchyard that is planned to begin operating in 2025. Following completion of this phase, two more phases of construction are planned, both adding similarly sized buildings. The third of these is expected to be completed in 2029. Subscribers can click here for related project reports.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Database can click here to view reports for all of the projects discussed in this article and click here for the related plant profiles.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).