Could Facebook Spread The Solar Gospel Throughout The South?

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Facebook has had some public relations setbacks lately, but one of the items on its long-term agenda that consistently gets it good press is the fact that it has started demanding clean energy – specifically solar – power its energy-intensive data centers.

In Virginia, for example, Dominion Energy had to create an entirely new type of agreement and build several solar farms so the state would be considered as a potential site for one of the data centers. We’ve seen these developments across the country, and it’s one of the unalloyed goods that Facebook has done.

So the question becomes: Could Facebook spread the solar gospel to other southern states? A recent agreement in Georgia provides some evidence that the answer to the question could be yes.

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Walton Electric Membership Corporation (EMC), a consumer-owned utility with a reputation for energy innovation, has executed contracts with two solar developers for three new solar projects as part of its agreement to supply 100 percent renewable energy for Facebook’s data center in Newton County, Georgia. The collaboration is the largest solar development project in Georgia.

Facebook chose Walton EMC as the power supplier for the Newton Data Center when it announced the 970,000 square foot facility in March.

Silicon Ranch and Strata Solar will construct world-class solar power plants that will support the new data center. The facilities will be located in Southwest Georgia.

“We are thrilled to be working with Walton EMC, Silicon Ranch and Strata Solar to bring more than 200 megawatts (mW) of new solar resources to Georgia,” said Rachel Peterson, vice president of data center strategy for Facebook. “We are committed to supporting all of Facebook’s operations with 100 percent renewable energy, and these new solar facilities will help us meet that goal for our Newton Data Center. Developing these resources within the same electric grid that supports our data center will bring even more investment to the region.”

The Newton Data Center is Facebook’s ninth such state-of-the-art facility in the country. The centers are among the most advanced, energy-efficient facilities in the world. They use 38 percent less electricity than the average data center.

New Mexico To Add Solar To Serve Facebook (Or How Corporates Are Driving Solar Adoption)

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

It’s stories like this that remind us all how corporates are going to drive solar adoption in many solar-reluctant states. New Mexico, which has had a contentious relationship with solar, is going to add 100 MW of solar in order to serve the electricity needs of a corporation of which you may have heard.

PNM Resources’ New Mexico utility, PNM, received approval on Wednesday from the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (NMPRC) to purchase 100 megawatts of solar generation from NM Renewable Development, LLC (NMRD) in order to continue serving the Facebook data center in the state with 100 percent renewable energy. This addition supports the goal to achieve a more sustainable energy portfolio at PNM.

“Opportunities for solar energy are abundant in New Mexico, and Facebook’s growth allows us to demonstrate our commitment to making our state a sustainable energy leader,” said Pat Vincent-Collawn, chairman, president and CEO of PNM Resources. “We are proud to support Facebook’s presence in our state.”

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NMRD, a joint venture between subsidiaries of PNM Resources and American Electric Power, will build two 50 megawatt solar photovoltaic generation facilities in New Mexico. The first facility is expected to be operational by the end of 2019, followed by the second facility in June 2020. Each facility is expected to result in approximately $70 million of investment in New Mexico and create approximately 200 construction jobs.

“With these two new projects, we have worked with PNM to bring 396 megawatts of new wind and solar projects that will contribute to a greener grid and help bring more renewable energy and investment to New Mexico,” said Bobby Hollis, Head of Global Energy at Facebook. “We appreciate the state’s supportive environment that has enabled us to procure this amount of renewable energy so quickly.”

Solar and wind projects constructed to serve Facebook are expected to total approximately $800 million of investment in New Mexico and create over 1,300 construction and permanent jobs, representing significant economic development in Valencia, Bernalillo, Quay, Torrance, Cibola and Sandoval counties.

The agreements are subject to approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

What Corporation Buys The Most On Solar? Bloomberg Has The Stats

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Corporations are driving clean energy adoption globally, and they have procured more than ever before so far in 2018 – at least according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Through July, global corporations have already shattered the 2017 full-year record by more than 2 GW through July, having already purchased 7.2 GW through July vs 5.4 GW in all of 2017. It’s being driven by sustainability plans and the incentives to build clean energy projects.

And solar is making up an ever-increasing portion of the purchases, thanks to plummeting PV prices – though wind still makes up the majority of purchases globally.

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Corporate PPAs are driving the growth, particularly in the United States, BNEF reports:

As a result, we’re seeing corporations locking into fixed, long-term clean energy contracts, hedging against volatile prices in the wholesale market. This is known as the virtual PPA model, and remains the most common corporate procurement mechanism.In the U.S., companies have grown more comfortable with the virtual PPA model, serving as the offtaker on several projects, but smaller companies are also increasingly pooling their electricity demand together to access the economies of scale achieved through larger solar and wind projects, known as aggregation.

BNEF reports the top five companies with solar installations – are Facebook, Microsoft, Walmart, MGM Resorts and Google. The company expects the growth to continue because companies have already committed to purchasing a certain amount of clean energy.

Bloomberg NEF forecasts that the current 140 signatories of the RE100 (a pledge to offset 100% of electricity demand with renewables) will need to purchase an additional 197 TWh of clean energy in 2030 to reach their targets. Were this shortfall to be met with long-term contracts for new solar and wind projects, it would lead to an additional 100GW of build – for context, this is slightly larger than California’s entire electricity grid today.

In other words, the future of clean energy continues to be bright on a global level – and solar continues to increase its hold on the international clean-energy market. It’s nice to see something we all feel instinctually borne out by research and statistics from BNEF.