Silicon Ranch is developing a 107MW solar facility for Facebook

• American solar corporation Silicon Ranch has been chosen for deployment of a 107 MW (AC) solar park for powering Facebook-owned data center located in Newton County.

"Walton EMC, initially contracted by Facebook to supply power to the data center, applied to Silicon Ranch for funding, constructing, owning and operating the new 107-megawatt plant. The component suppliers for the project have not been unveiled yet. The known fact is that the facility will comprise around 350,000 photovoltaic panels connected to single-axis trackers. 

The solar park, named Snipesville II, will rely on a 102.5-megawatt project in Early County, which is a part of the 200-megawatt solar developments. PV panels for the latter are delivered directly from Hanwha Q CELLS’ site located in Georgia.

Facebook declared the new data center deployment in March 2019. Walton EMC was chosen to supply the facility with electricity exclusively from renewable sources. This was meant to bring FB closer to its targeted fully renewable electricity and at the same time to strengthen the state’s solar power market. 

The utility has applied to Silicon Ranch for performing the order. At the beginning of 2018, a minority stake in Silicon Ranch was acquired by oil-and-gas giant Shell, which proclaimed the company’s reintroduction to the global solar power market. As of today, Silicon Ranch operates a 1-gigawatt solar pipeline throughout Georgia.