Facebook is building a massive solar farm in West Texas that’s believed to be one of the largest solar projects in the nation and the social media giant’s first direct investment in renewable energy.
Boston-based renewable energy developer Longroad Energy recently announced it was partnering with Facebook on the $416 million project, just as Facebook is finishing construction of a data center near Albuquerque.
The Prospero Solar project just north of Odessa, Texas, will have a capacity of 379 megawatts, which is enough to power around 72,000 homes based on the national average, the Solar Energy Industries Association said.
The project goes beyond Facebook’s goal to use renewable energy to power its data centers, where the social media giant stores photos, videos and other information that people post on the platform.
Prospero Solar is expected to be completed next year and will take up around 7 square miles — more than five times the size of Central Park in New York City.
Menlo Park, California-based Facebook will be the sole tax equity investor, Longroad said.
Ben Inskeep, a research analyst for EQ Research, a North Carolina-based renewable energy consulting firm, said it makes sense for Facebook to invest in solar power because renewable energy is becoming more affordable and its data centers have huge operating costs.
“West Texas has some of the best solar resources in the nation,” Inskeep said. “So it’s not about saying you support renewable energy. It makes good business sense.”
Shell Energy North America and Facebook will share the power generated by the solar farm.
“Facebook is excited to be one of the first companies to use a direct investment to meet our renewable energy goals,” company energy strategy manager Peter Freed said in a statement.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in April that Facebook was building six new solar projects to support its data centers. They house tens of thousands of computer servers, which are linked to the outside world through fiber-optic cables.
“Our data centers are already some of the most energy efficient in the world and last year we set a goal for all our data centers and offices to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2020,” Zuckerberg wrote on his personal Facebook page. “These new solar projects will help us reach that goal.”
It comes as Facebook battles New Mexico regulators over a new transmission line to its data center in the small town of Los Lunas.
State regulators last month declined to reconsider their decision for the largest utility to bill Facebook $39 million for the transmission line.
They said ratepayers could not be charged for the project because the line wouldn’t benefit retail customers.
Read more at NY Post
Unless Facebook only operates only during the day, I guess Facebook will soon be announcing a huge battery storage complex, or maybe a nuclear (carbon zero) power plant to handle the electric load when the sun isn’t shining.
Not just during the day but during sunny days. And fewer hours come winter than during the summer. Lots of shutdowns and startups of all those servers!
In other words, they will be depending on electricity developed from fossil fuel plants.
How environmental of them, destroying 7 square miles of land and covering them with toxic materials. Oh, but the “carbon” .. think of the “carbon” .. stupid morons.
Look as Facebook ruins the landscape with a seven square mile long eyesore and not a thing from the Eco- Wackos who block a home being constructed on some property they claim is enviromentaly sensitive if you realy beleived their Malarkey
When Facebook is mentioned, intelligence is not the first thing that comes to mind. None of my money is going into this solar farm.
The National Audubon Society don’t realy care about the Birds if they realy did they would oppose Wind Turbines which are a Hazard to Birds especialy the larger ones