Dominion solar parks to power new Facebook data centre

Social media giant Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) will power a new data centre in Virginia with solar electricity provided by Dominion Energy Inc (NYSE:D), the US utility said on Thursday.

Through its local unit Dominion Energy Virginia, the utility will build multiple solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities throughout the state to meet Facebook’s needs and supply its customers. The exact locations of the solar plants have not been determined yet.

Facebook’s eighth data centre is currently under construction near Richmond, eastern Henrico County. It will consist of two separate buildings and administrative space covering a total area of almost one million sq ft (92,900 sq m). In its press release, Dominion Energy did not provide information about the amount of energy that the facility will require.

Dominion Energy will supply electricity to the Facebook data centre under a renewable rate option called Schedule RF (renewable facility). The scheme will be filed for approval with the Virginia State Corporation Commission later this month.

The power utility group noted that if consented, the Schedule RF scheme it developed with Facebook can be used by other large energy consumers seeking to meet their power needs from renewables. "Access to clean energy is joining reliability and price as important considerations when businesses decide to locate their operations," said Robert M Blue, president and CEO of Dominion Energy's Power Delivery Group.

The new programme is also seen to help Dominion Energy diversify its power generation portfolio, in line with its plan to add at least 5,200 MW of new PV capacity by 2042.

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