The US subsidiary of German energy company RWE has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the data and social media giant Meta for solar PV power produced at a 200MW project in Texas.
Under the deal, Meta will offtake 100% of the energy produced at RWE Clean Energy’s 200MW Waterloo solar project in Bastrop County, Texas. The site is expected to begin construction in “late 2025”, RWE said, though it did not disclose the length of the PPA once the project begins producing power.
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With this deal, Meta—which owns Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram—has contracted 574MW of solar PV capacity from RWE in the US, following two PPAs signed in August last year for projects in Illinois and Louisiana.
“RWE’s partnership with Meta underscores the importance of unleashing American electricity generation from all sources to support load growth in Texas and across the US,” said Christoph Hunfeld, chief commercial officer at RWE Clean Energy.
RWE claims to be the “third-largest” renewable energy developer in the US. The company’s portfolio expanded by around 8GW with its 2021 acquisition of Con Edison Clean Energy Business, the renewable energy development arm of US shareholder-owned utility Con Edison.
Texas and Donald Trump
The deals with RWE will support Meta’s much-touted commitment to power 100% of its operations with renewable energy. It is the largest corporate purchaser of solar power in the US, leading a podium comprised of fellow tech giants Google and Amazon, according to a November report from the US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
Meta has signed offtake deals and credit purchase agreements for various utility-scale PV projects, including with French utility Engie, Cypress Creek Renewables and D.E Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI). Many of these have been for projects in Texas.
Meta’s most recent deal with RWE Clean Energy will power data centres and “growing regional operations” in Texas.
In January, the company was reported to be moving its content and moderation staff to Texas, supposedly to prevent them from “censoring” users, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The state has become an attractive hub for large corporations and tech firms, in part due to its lack of regulation, and observers have said the move was part of efforts to warm relations with the then-incoming Trump administration. Fellow billionaire Elon Musk – the unelected head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – had previously moved his X platform’s headquarters to Texas.
In another echo of Trumpian influence, RWE said the project would “advance US energy dominance”, a phrase the president used in connection with his removal of the US from the Paris Climate Agreement and his advocacy of expanded US oil and gas production.
Despite trade and investment uncertainties brought about by Trump’s announcement of tariffs on imports and a pause in the disbursement of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds, the US solar industry has so far continued its broadly upward trajectory under the new administration.
PV Tech published a blog from tax and assurance firm Baker Tilly which looked at the uncertainty and impacts of Donald Trump’s energy policies on US solar, though concluded that growth was unlikely to stop. One route to sustained success may be a greater emphasis on “US energy dominance” and other attendant “America first” rhetoric. In an interview last year, prior to the US election, we heard from a former advisor to the Obama administration that the industry should “grow up” and “become more political” to ensure its continued influence (premium access).
