Facebook to purchase 170 MW of power from 300-MW Lincoln Land Wind

Last week, Apex Clean Energy announced that it has executed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Facebook for 170 MW of renewable power from its 300-MW Lincoln Land Wind, located in Morgan County, Illinois. Facebook is now Apex’s largest corporate customer by megawatt.

This
project will help Facebook meet its goal of supporting operations in the region
with 100% renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75%.

The
deal marks Apex’s third renewable transaction with Facebook in the past year. In
2019, Facebook signed a PPA for 61.6 MW of Apex solar project Altavista Solar,
and a 200-MW PPA with for power form Aviator Wind East, which will be part of
the largest single-phase, single-site wind project in the United States when it
begins commercial operations. The PPA with Lincoln Land Wind will help support
the tech company’s operations in the region.

The
remaining 130 MW from Lincoln Land Wind will be sold to another corporate off-taker.

Apex
said that Lincoln Land Wind will generate $65 million in local tax revenue, $90
million in payments to landowners, nearly 400 full-time local jobs during
construction, and nine long-term local operations positions, the company
states.

Lincoln
Land Wind is expected to begin operations in 2021.

Urvi
Parekh, Head of Renewable Energy at Facebook, said, “At Facebook, we are
committed to not only supporting our operations with 100% renewable energy, but
to helping accelerate the transition to renewable energy. With our recent
announcement of our new data center in DeKalb, we are excited to bring
renewable energy to Illinois.”