Dive Brief:
- Meta signed two long-term power purchase agreements with German energy company RWE which will rely on solar farms currently being developed in the U.S., the pair announced Wednesday.
- RWE’s Illinois-based County Run Solar project is expected to provide the tech company with 274 megawatts of renewable energy while the Louisiana-based Lafitte Solar project will provide 100 megawatts, once operational, per a press release.
- The deal will help Meta procure clean energy for its U.S. operations and build on its sustainability strategy, which includes a goal to reach net-zero emissions across its supply chain by 2030 and back its operations with 100% renewable energy.
Dive Insight:
The social media and technology conglomerate said it achieved net-zero status across its own global operations in 2020 — a feat it attained by reducing emissions by 94%, compared to a 2017 baseline. Meta said reductions were “primarily” achieved by equipping its data centers and offices with 100% renewable energy.
Last year, Meta reported it slashed its carbon footprint by more than 12.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent since 2018 through its renewable energy commitments. Further, the Menlo Park, California-based company — which owns platforms such as Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp — said it contracted 10,000 MW of renewable energy across six countries as of 2023. Meta said this figure made it “one of the largest corporate buyers of renewable energy in the world.”
“Partnering with renewable energy providers like RWE to bring new solar energy projects online is an important part of our approach to energy procurement,” Meta’s head of renewable energy, Urvi Parekh, said in the release.
RWE’s agreement with Meta comes a few months after the global renewable energy provider issued two sets of $1 billion bonds to fund renewable projects in April, its first set of green bonds in the U.S. The company previously launched similar bonds in the European market and plans to become a “regular issuer” in both markets going forward, its CFO, Michael Müller, said at the time.
