Canadian energy firm Enbridge will develop a 365MW/1,600MWh solar-plus-storage project in Wyoming, US, as part of an ongoing partnership with tech and data giant Meta.
The first phase of the Cowboy project, near Cheyenne, Wyoming, will supply power to Meta for its growing data centre operations in the US. The partnership between Meta and Enbridge now totals approximately 1.6GW of contracted energy capacity across North America.
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Enbridge did not provide a timeline for the project’s construction or operations.
“The first phase of the Cowboy Project builds on our strong and growing relationship with Meta and reflects Enbridge’s disciplined approach to expanding our power portfolio,” said Allen Capps, Enbridge’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and President of Power business. “By integrating utility-scale solar with battery storage, we’re delivering reliable, scalable energy solutions that support Meta’s data centre operations while strengthening grid performance.”
Meta’s largest data centre development will be the US$200 billion ‘Hyperion’ construction in Louisiana, reportedly to be accompanied by 10 gas-fired power plants. The similarly grandiosely named ‘Prometheus’ cluster of data centres in Ohio forms part of the company’s commitment to spend US$600 billion on AI data centre infrastructure by 2028.
Alongside massive water, land and gas-fired energy consumption, Meta has invested significantly in US solar energy to power its operations. Last week, it announced 850MW worth of solar and energy storage power purchase agreements (PPAs) with DE Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI), and at the start of this month, it inked another offtake deal with EDP for a 250MW solar PV project in Arkansas.
Not content with land-based energy resources, the company has also signed a speculative deal with US startup Overview Energy for early access to space-based solar power, harvested with satellites that beam solar energy from space to land-based PV farms, theoretically allowing for 24/7 generation.
The US data centre boom has sparked fierce debate, pitting the economic and tax benefits that these huge developments can bring to local regions against the impacts they have on power grid stability, water tables and local communities.
