Moving one step closer to meeting its net zero emissions goal for its entire value chain by 2030, Meta signs on for 156MW from solar park in Milam County.
EDP Renewables SA (EDPR), through its fully owned subsidiary EDP Renewables North America, and Meta (Facebook) executed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) for 156MW at the 240MW Cattlemen Solar Park, which will be sited on 2,600 acres in Milam County, in central Texas.
EDP Renewables North America developed and will construct, own, and operate Cattlemen Solar Park, to be built in two stages, which will represent capital investments of approximately $320 million and $220 million. These investments would disperse millions in cumulative payments to local governments through the life of the projects, the company reports. Hundreds of construction jobs would be created as well as multiple permanent jobs.will provide economic benefits by way of payments to local landowners, an estimated $55 million in taxes from Cattlemen I, paid to support local schools and other essential community services.
“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,” said Urvi Parekh, head of renewable energy at Meta
Cattleman Park will generate enough power for of more than 37,000 average Texas homes and save approximately 304 million gallons of water a year, which EDPR says is the amount of water that would be needed by conventional generation sources to produce the same amount of capacity as the solar park.
EDPR and Meta have also collaborated on a 139MW PPA for the 200MW Headwaters II Wind Farm in Indiana and on the 200MW Randolph Solar Park, which will support Meta’s data center in Mesa, Arizona. Meta recently announced the collaboration with Silicon Ranch on the 70MW McKellar Solar Farm in Tennessee Valley Authority (TV) territory. Additionally, Meta has partnered with Silicon Ranch on three projects in Georgia with a combined capacity of 287MW, another 120MW in Utah, 160MW of solar in Virginia, and has 475MW in total PV projects contracted under TVA’s Green Invest program.
