American renewable energy developer Invenergy and social media technology giant Meta Platforms Inc. announced they have expanded their series of clean power purchase agreements (PPAs) to nearly 2 GW of long-term commitments in U.S. wind and solar farms.
Meta has signed up for four additional PPAs totaling 791 MW of wind and solar projects to support Meta’s operations and data center growth. Under many PPAs, the customer does not receive renewable energy directly, but the long-term financial contract helps pay for the projects and offsets the company’s emissions by supporting deployment of more clean energy on the grid.
The new PPA follows last year’s announcement of Meta's PPA commitment to 1 GW in Invenergy projects, as well as those from other renewable developers. The latest contracts revealed this month support four Invenergy developments across the U.S., all of which are scheduled to go into commercial operations by 2027 or 2028.
The new PPA includes the Yellow Wood and Pleasant Prairie solar centers in Ohio, totaling 440 MW. The other two parts of the Meta PPA are the Decoy Solar and Seaway Wind energy centers in Arkansas and Texas, respectively, with a combined 351 MW in generation capacity.
The nation’s digital infrastructure and data center firms are seeking expanded grid and even distributed energy capacity to meet the growing demands of artificial intelligence and cloud-based computing. Various forecasts predict an additional 50 to 100 GW of new capacity needed to meet the load from next-gen AI and data centers.
"Winning the AI race requires reliable, cleaner, affordable energy and energy infrastructure - today and in the future. We're grateful for our continued relationship with Meta and look forward to future partnerships as we work to strengthen American energy independence and economic prosperity," said Ted Romaine, Invenergy's executive vice president of origination, in a statement.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, itself is developing energy-hungry AI technology and seeking new, carbon-free or lower-emitting solutions for meeting its future load. Those include not only renewable energy and grid power, but also future small modular reactors and conventional nuclear energy generation.
"We're laser-focused on advancing our AI ambitions—and to do that, we need clean, reliable energy. We're grateful for Invenergy's long-term partnership that helps us support our energy needs and implement our clean energy goals, and look forward to continued collaboration," said Urvi Parekh, Meta's Head of Global Energy.
Invenergy, meanwhile, has grown to develop more than 34,000 MW (34 GW) of independent power projects across the world. Those generation plants include gas-fired, wind, solar, energy storage and transmission infrastructure.
Chicago-based Invenergy also has developed projects in Canada, Mexico, Spain, Japan, Poland, Scotland and Asia. The Quebec Deposit and Investment Fund and private equity firm Blackstone Group have ownership stakes in Invenergy.
