Utah's Landmark 525-MW Faraday Solar Project Boosts Renewable Capacity
One of the largest solar projects in the western U.S. is entering commercial operations in Utah with support from Facebook owner Meta Inc. to provide carbon-free electricity to the grid.
Excelsior Energy Capital has announced operational readiness of the 525-MW Faraday Solar farm in Utah County. Faraday Solar—named in honor of legendary British physicist Michael Faraday—is assured financially through a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with utility PacifiCorp in which Meta purchases the power to offset its data center operations in the region.
“Successful delivery of this landmark project reaffirms Excelsior’s commitment to enabling others to reach their clean energy goals and support a clean and reliable grid,” said Chris Frantz, Partner and Head of Portfolio Operations, Excelsior Energy Capital , in a statement. “Solar energy continues to demonstrate its resilience and strategic importance, and projects such as Faraday Solar can not only deliver attractive returns but also enhance energy security and independence in a volatile global landscape.”
Excelsior acquired the Faraday Solar project in 2023 from Parasol and Clenera, the initial developers of the project. Data center and AI infrastructure firms such as Meta, Google, Microsoft and others are investing to secure electricity resource adequacy through multiple resources, from gas-fired power to renewables and even future nuclear energy restarts.
Under many renewable energy PPAs, the company does not receive the carbon-free energy directly but its financial commitment helps finance construction and commissioning to interconnect the project and help decarbonize the main utility grid.
A joint letter signed by many of the nation's attorneys general in Republican states has challenged the validity of claims that those renewable energy credits truly decarbonize corporate operations.
Rocky Mountain Power’s Schedule 34 green energy tariff allows large customers to directly support the incremental addition of clean and renewable energy projects to support the customer’s clean energy goals. Accordingly, Meta will purchase the energy and all of the environmental attributes associated with the solar facility to match the company’s operations in Utah with clean energy.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Economic Forum, solar photovoltaic (PV) is the main driver of renewable capacity growth. Construction of Faraday Solar, with 1.2 million solar panels and a footprint roughly equivalent to New York’s Central Park, was completed below two years.
Energy Project Solutions and RES Group were contracted to complete the construction and commissioning phases of the Faraday Solar project.
About the Author
EnergyTech Staff
Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 17 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.
Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.
He can be reached at [email protected].
EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.