Silicon Ranch will collaborate with Walton Electric Membership Corporation (Walton EMC) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to provide renewable energy to Meta's data centers in Georgia and Tennessee Valley, respectively. According to the agreements, Silicon Ranch will finance, develop, own, manage, and maintain the solar facilities throughout the lifespan of all seven projects. With the agreement, Meta now collaborates with Silicon Ranch on sixteen solar facilities to serve its operations in Georgia and the Tennessee Valley. Eight of the projects are currently operational, producing about 630MWac of solar energy, and each plant incorporates Silicon Ranch's revolutionary Regenerative Energy model of land management, a holistic approach to design, construction, and operations that co-locates renewable energy production with regenerative agriculture practices. The agreement doubles the capacity under the partnership between Meta and Silicon Ranch in the US.
Walton EMC will sign an agreement on behalf of Meta for three new solar facilities in Georgia, developed by Silicon Ranch, totaling 560MWac. The projects will be developed in each of the next three years, supporting Meta’s Newton Data Center in Newton County. Meta signed an agreement with Walton EMC in Mar '18, to source power for the data center. Similarly, TVA signed agreements with Silicon Ranch for four new solar facilities in Tennessee totaling 160MWac under TVA’s Green Invest program. These projects are expected to be operational by 2024 and will support Meta’s Gallatin data centers in Tennessee and Huntsville data centers in Alabama. Apart from this, Silicon Ranch is also close to completing 125MWac DeSoto I solar farm in Lee County, Georgia, and 70MWac McKellar solar farm in Madison County, Tennessee, to serve Meta’s operations.
According to SEIA’s Solar Means Business Report 2022, Meta has off taken the most solar capacity in the US as of June 22 with 3.6GW, closely followed by Amazon, Apple, Walmart, and Microsoft. The tech giant has managed to scale the use of solar power rapidly over the last three years, escalating from only 177MW in 2019. The company has also been at the forefront of adopting energy storage systems to maximize the reliability and flexibility of utility systems and enables a much lower carbon footprint. The company has existing partnerships with the Public Service Company of New Mexico and the Tennessee Valley Authority to add battery energy storage systems to the grid in New Mexico, Kentucky, and Mississippi. Enerdatics understands that more such PPAs and partnerships are expected to happen in the future with the company planning to reach net zero emissions across its value chain by the end of 2030.
The above analysis is proprietary to Enerdatics’ energy analytics team, based on the current understanding of the available data. The information is subject to change and should not be taken to constitute professional advice or a recommendation.
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