Renewable energy developer rPlus Energies has recently entered into a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with Idaho Power, a state utility, for the proposed Pleasant Valley Solar project in Ada County, Idaho. The agreement aims to provide power to a data center owned by Meta, a prominent company based in Silicon Valley.
The negotiations leading to the agreement involved Meta and Idaho Power, facilitated by an Energy Services Agreement brokered by Meta. The purpose of this agreement was to enable Meta to access renewable energy resources in close proximity to its data center operations. The Pleasant Valley Solar project will be linked to the same grid that serves a new data center located in Kuna, Idaho.
rPlus Energies stated that the Pleasant Valley Solar project represents the largest photovoltaic (PV) endeavor currently contracted within the Idaho Power System.
Both Meta and Idaho Power have set targets to utilize and supply 100% clean energy in the coming decades.
Idaho Power's president and CEO, Lisa Grow, expressed the significance of this development, stating, “This is an important milestone for Idaho Power. Pleasant Valley will not only become the largest solar project on our system, but it's also an example of how our proposed Clean Energy Your Way program can help us partner with customers to meet their own clean energy goals. We look forward to working with Meta as the future of clean energy takes shape in Idaho, including Idaho Power's own goal to provide 100% clean energy to its customers by 2045.”
Urvi Parekh, the head of renewable energy at Meta, emphasized the selection of Idaho as their data center location in 2022 due to the accessibility of renewable energy. Parekh stated, “One of the core factors in selecting Idaho for our new data center location in 2022 was access to renewable energy, and Meta is proud to partner with Idaho Power and rPlus Energies to help bring even more renewable energy to the Treasure Valley grid.”
Meta is recognized as one of the leading corporate purchasers of renewable power in the United States, with more than 1 gigawatt (GW) of PPA deals in place with Apex Clean Energy and over 700 megawatts (MW) with Silicon Ranch, in addition to the recently announced agreement with rPlus. Other major companies such as Google and Amazon are also among the top five corporate buyers of clean power in the country.
