Facebook would like it to be easier for corporations to acquire renewable energy, Wired reports. It took the social media giant more than a year to secure a power deal for its new 200 MW data center, currently under construction in Fort Worth, Texas. The data center is scheduled to come online in 2016 and will run entirely on wind power.
Facebook set up the wind deal in Texas through Citigroup Energy, Alterra Power Corporation and Starwood Energy Group. These three companies have arranged to operate a wind farm about 90 miles from Fort Worth and send the power to the new computing center. However, because wind power is intermittent, they will still need power from the grid for times when the wind is not blowing.
It was far easier to acquire renewable energy in Texas, which has a deregulated market, than it was in regulated states such as Iowa and North Carolina, where Facebook operates additional data centers. In these states, renewable energy cannot be sent directly to the data center; it must be moved through a state-sanctioned power company.
These types of difficulties with acquiring renewable energy are why, according to Wired, Facebook became one of the 35 signatories on the Corporate Renewable Energy Buyers’ Principles, an effort to streamline the acquisition of green energy for all sorts of large businesses. The Buyers’ Principles outline what companies need from the marketplace to get access to more renewable energy, such as more options for procurement and opportunities to work with utilities and regulators to expand renewable energy buying choices.
Photo via Shutterstock.