Social network and advertising company Facebook has agreed to a power purchase agreement (PPA) with First Solar to supply the company’s Eagle Mountain, Utah data center with clean power. The company will buy the power through PacifiCorp.

Facebook’s solar power will come from the 122MW Cove Mountain 2 solar plant in Iron County, Utah.

Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg basking in the power of the sun – Mark Zuckerberg

Sunshine on Eagle Mountain

Last July, Facebook set up a PPA with PacifiCorp business unit Pacific Power to help fund 337MW of solar power in Utah, and 100MW near its Prineville, Oregon data center.

PacifiCorp is a power unit of Warren Buffett’s multi-national conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Cove Mountain 2 is still being built and is scheduled to open in 2020. Once fully built, the solar farm will generate 122MW, an amount of power equivalent to the energy needs of 36,000 average Utah homes, First Solar said.

Facebook also purchases power from First Solar’s 58MW Cove Mountain solar farm, which is currently operation.

Paul Clements, director of energy and infrastructure at Facebook, said: “This project is an important part of our commitment to support all of our data centers and offices with 100 percent renewable energy in 2020.

“Working with First Solar and Rocky Mountain Power allows us to ensure that our data center will be supported by new renewable energy resources - like this solar power plant - in the same electrical grid as our data center.”

Further reading