Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has announced new power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Engie North America, enhancing their collaboration in renewable energy. These agreements include a significant PPA where Engie will supply 100% of the energy generated from its largest solar project to date, dedicated to powering Meta’s data centre operations in Texas.
The partnership now encompasses more than 1.3 gigawatts (GW) across four projects located in Texas. A key component of these new PPAs is Engie’s Swenson Ranch Solar project in Stonewall County, Texas. This 600-megawatt (MW) project is set to be Engie’s largest asset within its 11 GW portfolio of solar, wind, and battery storage assets in North America, with an anticipated investment of $900 million.
Scheduled to become operational in 2027, Meta will purchase the entire output of the Swenson Ranch Solar project to support its data centre operations across the United States. Dave Carroll, CEO and Chief Renewables Officer at Engie North America, emphasised the significance of this project, stating, “Our objective is to bring reliable, cost-competitive power to the grid as rapidly as possible, and projects like Swenson demonstrate the importance of solar to meet the timely needs of our customers.”
Meta aims to achieve net-zero emissions across its value chain by 2030. The company reached its goal of meeting 100% of its operational energy needs with renewable sources in 2020 and plans to add 9.8 GW of renewable energy to U.S. grids by the end of 2025.
Earlier this year, Meta and Engie entered into a renewable energy supply agreement, which included a 200 MW deal from Engie’s Anson 2 solar project and a 260 MW agreement announced last year. Additionally, in September, Engie North America announced a collaboration with Prometheus Hyperscale to co-locate data centres at renewable and battery storage energy facilities in Texas.
Urvi Parekh, Head of Global Energy at Meta, expressed enthusiasm for the expanded partnership, stating, “We are thrilled to bring an additional 600 MW of solar energy to the grid and expand our partnership with Engie to 1.3 GW. Our collaboration with Engie enables us to continue matching 100% of our electricity use with clean and renewable energy to support our data centre operations.”
