Arizona public power utility Salt River Project, EDP Renewables North America LLC and Meta on July 29 unveiled the 200-megawatt Brittlebush Solar Park located near the town of Coolidge, Ariz.
Brittlebush “supports SRP’s commitment to responsibly decarbonize its power generation portfolio while providing affordable and reliable energy to one of the fastest growing areas in the country,” SRP said.
“SRP is proud to partner with EDPR NA to bring more clean energy to Arizona and to support Meta’s renewable energy goals,” said Bobby Olsen, SRP Chief Planning, Strategy and Sustainability Executive. “This project will also move us closer to reaching our own goal to reduce emissions by 82 percent by 2035 while providing affordable and reliable power to our customers.”
The project's total capacity will be dedicated to supporting Meta's data center in Mesa, Ariz.
Brittlebush represents the third renewable energy partnership between EDPR NA and Meta.
Meta will also receive capacity from two other SRP resources, the 100-MW West Line Solar Facility and the 300-MW solar plus battery Eleven Mile Facility. Each of these projects will further enable Meta to reach its 100% renewable and net zero goals.
In addition to Brittlebush, EDPR NA is currently developing its 96 MW Table Top Solar Park, formerly known as Casa Grande Carmel Solar Park, and operates the 158 MW Sun Streams Solar Park.
Through its Integrated System Plan, SRP found it will need to at least double the number of generating resources on its power system in the next 10 years to meet increasing energy demand in the Phoenix metropolitan area as it moves forward with the planned retirement of 1,300 MW of coal resources.
More than 2,500 MW of carbon-free energy resources, including over 1,200 MW of solar, and nearly 1,300 MW of battery and pumped hydro storage are currently serving SRP customers. SRP also has significantly more solar energy capacity under development and over 1,100 MW of additional battery storage resources will be online by the end of 2024.
