Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms Inc. continues to grow in Texas, signing a contract with RWE this week to drive its operation with a 200-megawatt solar project.
In an announcement Tuesday, Meta and RWE, one of the nation’s largest renewable energy companies, revealed a new electricity purchase agreement. The agreement allows Meta to source 100% of the electricity generated by RWE’s upcoming Waterlu Solar Project in Bastrop County.
Construction is expected to begin later this year, the solar project will support Power Meta’s growing regional operations and data center capacity. The project is expected to support Peak Construction’s 300 full-time employees and generate an estimated $26 million in economic activity, according to the announcement.
The deal is the third long-term agreement between RWE and Meta in recent months. Meta has signed a power purchase agreement with a renewable energy company for 100% of its production in the Illinois solar project and Louisiana solar project.
“The partnership between RWE and META highlights the importance of unlocking American power generation from all sources to support load growth across Texas and the US.” “These collaborations will allow us to continue investing in communities across the US, such as Bastrop County, to stimulate job creation and economic prosperity, while also helping companies such as Meta to match their business’ electricity usage and clean, renewable energy.”
Meta has recently expanded its operations in Lone Star State.
Meta has around 1,500 local employees in the Austin area. The company is currently leasing space to two downtown towers. 300W. It is about 120,000 square feet at the sixth and third shallow water towers, and about 600,000 square feet at the sixth and Guadalupe Towers.
The Wall Street Journal reported in January that Meta was in discussions to reincorporate into Texas, and that perhaps many major US companies could move away from Delaware, where it was founded.
The news comes weeks after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company’s major content policy team would be moving to Texas. It has not been specified whether the team will join the downtown Austin office.
Meta is currently building a hyperscale data center facility in Temple, which is expected to be an investment of at least $800 million by the social media giant.
