Facebook Enters into Virtual PPA for Solar Power worth 80 MW

Digital Realty has announced that it has inked a virtual power purchase agreement on behalf of Facebook, Inc., to sustain Facebook’s renewable energy goals at data center facilities leased from Digital Realty in Virginia.

Under the agreement, Digital Realty has implemented a long-term renewable power purchase contract to secure roughly 80 MW of solar power capacity for Facebook to power its Virginia Data Center.

Digital Realty contracted with SunEnergy1, which has developed and will have and operate the solar project, to be situated inside Virginia Electric and Power Company territory in North Carolina. Under the terms of the agreement, all renewable energy certificates and environmental claims will be delivered to Facebook.

“Facebook is committed to supporting all of its operations with 100% renewable energy and to improving overall access to renewable markets,” said Bobby Hollis, Director of Global Energy and Site Selection at Facebook. “We are thrilled Digital Realty has entered into this agreement and hope this will serve as a model for other colocation customers seeking to support their operations with high-quality, renewable energy projects.”

This contract marks the first back-to-back utility-scale renewable energy deal between a data center provider landlord operating a virtual power purchase agreement to strengthen the renewable energy supply committed to a customer.

“Our scale and position as a leader in data center sustainability enabled us to execute this first of its kind agreement in support of Facebook’s sustainability goals,” said Digital Realty Chief Executive Officer A. William Stein. “We were able to take Facebook’s quality standards and timeline into consideration and deliver this solution in a competitive marketplace and at a competitive price. We are very pleased to be part of the solution enabling Facebook to achieve its renewable energy goals.”

Digital Realty worked in affiliation with Facebook to structure the deal to make parallel with Facebook’s quality standards for new renewable energy projects inside the same power grid as the data center load.