Dominion to build yet another solar facility for Facebook

Dominion Energy Inc. will build a solar facility in Greensville County — its eighth facility to be dedicated to Facebook Inc., the company announced Thursday.

The Virginia State Corporation Commission approved the 100-megawatt project, Sadler Solar, on Jan. 22, and the facility is expected to be operational by the end of this year. Dominion will build, own and operate the facility while Facebook will purchase the energy produced.

Facebook has a goal to use 100% renewable energy this year and Dominion has a goal of adding 3,000 megawatts (MW) of solar and wind energy in Virginia by 2022. And on Tuesday, Dominion set a new goal of achieving net-zero carbon dioxide and methane emissions from its electricity generation and gas infrastructure operations by 2050. According to Facebook Sustainability, the company reached 75% renewable energy in 2018.

“We are proud to continue to grow our partnership with Dominion Energy by adding this new 100-MW project to the grid,” Urvi Parekh, head of renewable energy at Facebook, said in a statement. “Since 2017, this partnership has resulted in over 690 MW of new solar energy in Virginia and North Carolina and has helped strengthen the renewable energy market in the region.”

Dominion announced last September that it plans to build a 220-turbine wind farm 27 miles from the coast of Virginia Beach by 2026. On Jan. 7, Dominion said that they had selected Biscay, Spain-based Siemens Gamesa to manufacture two 6-MW turbines for the $300 million project. Then, on Jan. 29, Dominion made public its partnership with Amazon.com Inc. to build a solar plant in Pittsylvania County, which is set to power one-third of the county’s operations and the e-commerce giant’s forthcoming headquarters in Arlington.

Dominion supplies energy to more than 7 million customers in 18 states and has more than $100 billion in assets. The company also announced Tuesday that its 2019 annual earnings were $1.4 billion, down from $2.4 billion in 2018.