Seven deals in, Meta and Apex Clean Energy have settled into a rhythm.
The tech giant behind Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram has signed yet another power purchase agreement, or PPA, with the Virginia-based provider.
This deal, announced last week on 16 September, is for a project named Starling Solar, a 144MW solar farm located in Texas’ Gonzales County.
The PPA will give Meta the exclusive rights to the renewable energy credits that come with solar generation at Starling as the firm looks to wrangle its ever-growing carbon footprint.
Rather than being the main offtaker of the energy, the electricity will be fed into the local grid. Meta, though, will be able to use the clean energy produced at Starling in its net zero reporting.
In plain terms, Meta gets to claim the green credentials of the output, while Apex secures a committed customer for a project it says would not have been built without Meta’s commitment.
The companies have not disclosed the amount Meta has paid Apex, the contract length or the amount of the resultant electricity Meta will use – if any – though the deal is reported to be long-term.
The Starling Solar is the seventh deal Meta has struck with Apex. Today, their joint energy portfolio spans Texas, Virginia, Illinois, Kansas and Iowa and is worth about 1.2GW of energy.
Ken Young, the CEO of Apex, says the working relationship the companies share is founded on common values.
"Seven projects over nearly as many years speaks to a partnership built on shared principles of responsible building and disciplined execution," he says.
Starling Solar's place in Texas' energy ecosystem
Starling will feed the grid run by ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages most of the state's power system and operates largely apart from the wider US network.
Apex says the project reflects its focus on delivering capacity that has a grid connection and is ready to build, on timelines large-load customers demand.
Large-load customers is industry shorthand for users such as data centres, whose demand can rival that of a small city.
"Starling brings new capacity to Texas and lasting value to Gonzales County long after construction wraps," he adds.
On that note, commercial operations at Starling are expected to begin in 2027.
Apex puts the local benefit at approximately US$27m in tax revenue over the project's lifetime, US$15.6m of it earmarked for local schools.
It also cites more than US$26.3m in landowner payments and nearly US$400,000 in local grants.
Construction is expected to employ 400 to 450 people, though only for the length of the build.
Those figures come from Apex and have not been independently verified.
Amanda Yang, Head of Clean & Renewable Energy at Meta, believes the ripple effects of the project will be great.
"The best clean energy projects are the ones the surrounding community feels the benefit of directly – in school funding, in landowner payments, in local hiring," she says.
"Starling brings all of that to Gonzales County, along with new solar generation for a Texas grid."
In recent years, Meta has stepped up its pursuit of deals such as this, especially since it began investing heavily in AI and data centres.
The firm agreed a PPA with German energy heavyweight RWE in June for the 298MW Rabbit's Foot Solar project in Bowie County, Texas. That was Meta's fourth deal with RWE since 2024.
Lightsource bp followed in July with Mowata Solar, a 172MWdc project in Acadia Parish, Louisiana, after a 2022 deal for the 134MWdc Arche Solar in Ohio.
Elsewhere, Meta agreed a deal with Zelestra this summer for the 180MWdc Palmera Solar Plant in Freestone County, Texas.
Head of Clean and Renewable Energy
CEO
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