Canadian power producer TransAlta Corp announced on Tuesday that it has signed a long-term renewable energy purchase deal with Meta, formerly known as Facebook, for the offtake of wind energy.
Under the contract, Meta will obtain both renewable electricity and environmental attributes generated by TransAlta’s 200 MW Horizon Hill Wind Power Project which will be built in Logan County, Oklahoma.
“Since 2020, Meta has relied solely on wind and solar energy to power its global operations,” explained Urvi Parekh, Meta's head of renewable energy. “As our footprint expands, it's critical that we find strong partners that can help us continue to achieve that goal by bringing new renewable energy to the grid.”
In order to cope with the huge electricity consumption, tech giants have ramped up their efforts to purchase renewable energy in recent years. The total number of power purchase agreements signed by Meta in 2021 reached 8 GW, ranking third in the world, after Amazon and Microsoft.
“TransAlta is excited to partner with Meta to bring Horizon Hill to life,” said John Kousinioris, TransAlta's president and CEO. “Horizon Hill's delivery of clean, low-cost, and reliable energy complements Meta's sustainability ambitions and gives us another great chance to extend our wind fleet in the United States. Horizon Hill takes us to 40% of our Clean Electricity Growth Plan goal of adding 2 GW of additional renewables to our portfolio by 2025.”
The facility will have 34 Vestas turbines, with construction starting in fourth quarter 2022 and a target commercial operation date of the second half of 2023. The plant will be built, operated, and owned by TransAlta.
The total project capital is likely to range from US$290 million to US$310 million, with current cash and tax equity being used to fund it.
Over 90% of the project expenses are covered by Vestas’ executed fixed price turbine supply agreements and Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives’ executed engineering, procurement, and construction agreements. The facility is estimated to generate US$27 million to US$30 million in yearly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
