Dominion adds new solar projects to meet Facebooks clean energy goals

Its solar projects announced recently would sell power to Facebook under an agreement between the two companies which was inked in 2017

Dominion Energy has recently reported that it is in the process of acquiring and building five solar projects with a total capacity of 330 MW of solar energy in North Carolina and Virginia, to support the operations of Facebook.

Two of them are already completed, and the state of Virginia is now anticipating significantly more capacity increase with various mega-projects in the works.

Seemingly, in addition to these five solar energy projects, the company is committing its newly completed Montross Solar plant of 20 MWac in Virginia’s Westmoreland County to supply to Facebook as well. This solar farm features the multicrystalline modules which are mounted on single-axis trackers.

Sources with knowledge on the matter informed that these five solar energy projects are in addition to the Spring Grove 1 plants of 98 MWac and the Colonial Trail West project of 142 MWac capacity, which Dominion is developing for supplying renewable energy credits to Facebook.

Although Facebook is getting the renewable energy credits, Dominion is selling the power from these two sites to its customers, who would be charged over 35 years through rate adjustment clause.

These six solar projects announced recently, would sell power to Facebook under an agreement between the two companies which was inked in 2017 and does not involve any influence over rates for Dominion consumers, sources added.

According to the sources, Dominion has acquired five of the six projects from BayWa, EDF Renewables, and Strata Solar. The company anticipates Gutenberg, Chestnut, and Grasshopper projects to come online in the middle of 2020.

In the first half of 2018, Facebook, the social media giant secured 1.1 GW of renewable energy and is encouraging solar projects to come up in Georgia, Oregon, Alabama, Utah, New Mexico, Tennessee and potentially in other states as well, sources further commented.

Source Credit: https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2019/04/22/facebook-brings-more-solar-to-virginia-north-carolina/