Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it had signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 315 megawatts (MW) of energy from the 500 MW Pleinmont I and II solar farms in Virginia, calling it the “single largest corporate purchase of solar energy ever in the United States.”
Owned and set to be operated by sPower, Pleinmont I and II will be made up of more than 750,000 solar panels installed across more than 2,000 acres and will produce approximately 715,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) per year.
The deal announced by Microsoft will see the company secure 315 MW of the energy generated by Pleinmont I and II to help power its local datacenters and office buildings, as well as its work bringing connectivity to all citizens through broadband technology.
The Pleinmont I and II deal also marks Microsoft’s second solar deal in Virginia following the March 2016 agreement to secure Renewable Energy Certificates from Dominion Energy’s 20 MW Remington Solar Farm.
The new PPA also signals a significant milestone for Microsoft as it has now met its target of powering at least 50% of its datacenters with clean energy by 2018, and puts it well on the path towards its next goal of achieving 60% by early 2020. It also comes hot on the heels of two March announcements by Microsoft in which it secured two global PPAs, one in Singapore and its first in India.