Facebook seals new deal for wind power in US with Apex Clean Energy
Social networking giant's deal for Lincoln Land Wind project in Illinois will support 100% renewables-powered area operations
Facebook has signed an agreement for 170MW of Illinois wind power, taking its renewables transactions over the last year with developer Apex Clean Energy to more than 430MW.
The social networking giant said the deal involving the future Lincoln Land Wind project would help it support regional operations with 100% renewable energy and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 75%.
Terms of the virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA), which allows corporate renewable buyers to commit to green energy without taking physical delivery of the electricity, were not disclosed. Unlike traditional financial transaction, the VPPA is instead based on variable-priced cash flow and renewable energy certificates.
In 2019, Facebook signed a 61.6MW VPPA with Altavista Solar, Apex’s largest solar project to date and a 200MW VPPA with the Aviator Wind East project in Texas, in a year when Facebook was the largest US corporate and industrial renewables buyer with 1.54GW in PPVAs against a sector record of 9.33GW.
Virginia-based Apex said the remaining 130MW from Lincoln Land Wind will be sold to another corporate customer that it will announce later. The project is due to enter commercial operation in 2021.
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