Meta has announced that its Mesa data center will soon be supported by solar energy from the Salt River Project (SRP) through a contract with Ørsted. 

Under the contract, Meta will receive the majority portion of energy generated by Ørsted’s Eleven Mile Solar Center, a 300 MW solar farm and 300 MW, four-hour BESS currently under construction in Pinal County, Ariz.

Once online next year, this will be the largest solar-plus-battery project on SRP’s power grid, and one of the largest battery energy storage systems built in a single phase in the U.S., says Ørsted. The solar and stored energy not needed by the Meta data center will be available to SRP’s customer base.

Meta will also receive an allocation of 50 MW from the 100 MW West Line Solar Facility, which opened earlier this year in Eloy. In addition, the company is slated to receive a portion of solar energy from the 200 MW Brittlebush Solar Facility in Coolidge, expected to be online next year.

“We are proud to partner with SRP to bring new solar energy to the grid. Access to renewable energy and a strong, reliable grid were an important part of our decision to build in Mesa,” says Urvi Parekh, Meta’s head of renewable energy. “Meta is committed to having a positive impact on local communities and we’re excited to help bring this additional investment and jobs to the area.”

“SRP is pleased to partner with Meta to add more solar to help meet Meta’s renewable energy goals and SRP’s sustainability commitments,” says SRP’s Bobby Olsen. “As SRP focuses on responsibly decarbonizing our generation mix, we will need to more than double our power resource capacity by 2035. Strategic partnerships with customers like Meta and renewable energy developers like Ørsted help us get there.”

Eleven Mile Solar Center is currently under construction and is expected to be operational next year. Located on over 2,000 acres, the project is estimated to generate $89 million in tax revenue over its lifetime, says Ørsted.

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Meta Mesa Data Center to be Powered by 300 MW Orsted Project