Facebook signed up to buy a 200-megawatt chunk of power from the Aviator Wind project in Texas, set to become the largest single-site U.S. wind farm when completed next year, according to developer Apex Clean Energy.
Already the largest corporate buyer of renewable power at the end of 2018 — narrowly topping Google, according to Wood Mackenzie — Facebook has continued to chalk up big deals for wind and solar power this year.
The 525-megawatt Aviator Wind project is being built at a single site in Coke County in West Texas, and in a single phase — unusual for a U.S. wind farm of that scale. Duke Energy’s 912-megawatt Los Vientos wind farm will remain Texas’ largest wind farm, according to American Wind Energy Association data, but that project was built over multiple phases spanning 2012-2016.
The Aviator project was developed by Virginia-based Apex, a leading U.S. renewables developer, and is owned by funds of asset management giant Ares Management Corp.
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Facebook has committed to procuring enough renewable power to meet 100 percent of its needs by 2020; as of 2018 it was three-quarters of the way there. In May the social media company made its first direct investment into a renewables project, providing tax-equity financing for a 397-megawatt Texas solar project developed by Longroad Energy Partners.
Corporate deals now play a central role in the U.S. renewables market. That looks set to continue for at least a few more years as companies take advantage of unprecedented wind and solar prices ahead of the scheduled phase-down of the main federal subsidies for renewable energy. Texas remains the corporate market’s epicenter, though it is diversifying as more companies seek to procure power closer to the loads.
A recent analysis from WoodMac and AWEA identified as much as 85 gigawatts of renewable energy demand within Fortune 1000 companies through 2030. A critical question for the market is how corporate demand will hold up as — or if — federal renewables subsidies step down, putting upward pressure on power-purchase agreement prices.
“The ambitious sustainability goals of corporate leaders like Facebook will play a key role in accelerating the transition to renewable energy — faster than ever anticipated — in the years to come,” Apex CEO Mark Goodwin said in a statement.
