Published

3 years ago

December 12, 2023

Alice Rush

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.

The post Meta Mesa Data Center to be Powered by Orsted’s Salt River Project appeared first on Solar Industry.

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

Renewable Energy

Plant-Based Meat Takes Unusual Marketing Tack

Published

11 hours ago

July 21, 2026

Alice Rush

I encourage readers to check out this tongue-in-cheek ad for plant-based meat.

There is a maxim in marketing warning against “promoting the enemy line,” this is so clever, I can see where it could be quite effective.

Plant-Based Meat Takes Unusual Marketing Tack

Renewable Energy

Is Mitch McConnell Still with Us? It’s Important

Published

12 hours ago

July 21, 2026

Alice Rush

As we all know, the GOP will stop at nothing to win the midterms, thus making it impossible to remove the sociopathic criminal from the White House.

But did any of us see this coming?

Macabre.

Is Mitch McConnell Still with Us? It’s Important

Renewable Energy

A Profile in Corporate Greed

Published

13 hours ago

July 21, 2026

Alice Rush

I just met a woman who’s been a flight attendant for Delta Airlines since the early 1990s, who laments that her company has been ruined by corporate greed, which has trashed so many other things in our lives.

As it turns out, the CEO makes more than $20 million per year, largely based on bonuses associated with cutting costs. “Now we have tray tables that don’t work and seatbacks that don’t recline, and nobody even thinks about fixing them.”

She went on, “This shift has been particularly obvious in the case of Delta, which, when I started with them, was known for its southern charm and the feeling of welcoming its passengers. Now, that gone. It’s like it never existed.”