US independent power producer (IPP) MN8 Energy has reached commercial operations at two utility-scale solar PV plants totalling 260MW.
Both projects are under a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with tech major Microsoft.
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The two solar PV projects are the 120MW Long Point Solar project, located in Brazoria County, Texas, and connected to ERCOT, and the 140MW American Beech project in Halifax County, North Carolina, which will generate electricity for the PJM grid.
Texas has been one of the leading states in solar PV additions, with more than 53GW of capacity in operation and is forecast to add the most new solar PV capacity over the next five years.
Tech giants, such as Microsoft, have been at the forefront of solar PV offtake agreements in Texas, with Meta signing a 180MW PPA with Spanish IPP Zelestra this month and Google recently acquiring renewables developer Intersect to develop a new data centre and energy complex powered by 1GW of solar PV, wind and energy storage.
Meta alone has signed more than a dozen solar PV offtake agreements in Texas over the past two years, either to directly supply its operations or to offset other energy sources.
“As digital infrastructure scales across the US, energy solutions must scale with it,” said Moe Hanifi, senior vice president and head of revenue and commodities at MN8 Energy. “These projects deliver new solar capacity into two critical power markets and highlight MN8’s role as a partner to Microsoft in meeting their sustainability goals.”
The addition of 260MW of operational solar PV to MN8’s portfolio brings the total to nearly 4GW of operational and under-construction solar PV capacity, 1.5GWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and over 40 high-power EV charging stations across ten states. The IPP recently entered into a toll agreement with Californian utility San Jose Clean Energy for 40 direct-current fast-charging (DCFC) ports across five California cities, as covered by our colleagues at EV Infrastructure News.
Last month, the IPP raised US$300 million to extend a corporate credit facility aimed at helping build out its pipeline of solar PV and energy storage projects.
