SB Energy Global, LLC ("SB Energy") announced that Google will purchase approximately seventy-five percent of the renewable energy produced by four of its solar projects under development. The projects, totaling 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of capacity will support Google's investment in Texas and clean energy ambitions. The Orion 1-3 and Eiffel solar projects are expected to be operational by mid-2024.
Since launching in the U.S. market 2019, SB Energy has rapidly grown its climate infra-tech platform with plans to deliver 10 GW of renewable energy and storage projects in operation or under construction by the end of 2025, alongside its advanced energy infrastructure technology and digital platform that enables innovative flexible generation.
"SB Energy is thrilled to join forces with Google to provide clean energy to match Google's Texas data center consumption," said SB Energy co-CEO Rich Hossfeld. "We share Google's relentless drive to achieve critical climate goals through innovative infrastructure and technology and look forward to expanding our relationship with Google as we deliver renewable energy that is local, reliable, and matched to load."
The power purchase agreement supports Google's commitment to operate every hour of every day on carbon-free energy by 2030 by supporting the energy needs of the company's data center in Midlothian, Texas and cloud region in Dallas. The agreement is Google's largest combined clean energy transaction in Texas to date.
Sana Ouji, Energy Lead at Google, said, "Within the decade we're aiming for every Google data center to operate on clean electricity every hour of every day. This goal requires us to continue to grow our caron-free energy portfolio. We're excited to partner with SB Energy to bring online four solar projects that will meaningfully grow our portfolio of renewable energy projects in the region and bring additional clean energy jobs to Texas.
SB Energy's four projects will further support Texas's robust renewable energy industry, which employs 10,000 people, with thousands of new jobs created during the projects' construction. Additionally, the four solar projects will primarily utilize U.S.-made First Solar modules. The First Solar modules for the projects will be produced at First Solar's Ohio manufacturing plant.
Supria Ranade, Head of Power Marketing at SB Energy, added, "We are pleased to deploy nearly a gigawatt of solar capacity to Google. We're proud that our customers know they can trust us to execute at a scale needed to achieve their climate goals."
SB Energy currently owns and operates 1.7 GW of solar capacity and will have started construction on an additional 1.3 GW by early next year. The company is scaling rapidly, bolstered by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
