Dominion Energy Virginia to Power Facebook’s New Data Center with Solar Power

The new data center in Henrico County will be comprised of two separate buildings and administrative space totaling nearly one million square feet. Dominion Energy Virginia plans to construct multiple solar facilities in the Commonwealth (sites still to be determined) to both meet Facebook’s needs

Dominion Energy Virginia has announced that it will add new solar generation to the power grid to serve a new state-of-the-art data center Facebook plans to build in suburban Richmond, Virginia.

Facebook on Thursday announced it has selected a location in eastern Henrico County as home to its eighth data center in the United States. This was made possible through a new innovative renewable rate option designed by Dominion Energy Virginia and Facebook that will allow large energy users such as Facebook to meet their needs through the addition of renewable energy sources.

“Access to clean energy is joining reliability and price as important considerations when businesses decide to locate their operations,” said Robert M. Blue, president and CEO of Dominion Energy’s Power Delivery Group. “We are pleased we have been able to develop a solution for Facebook that meets all those requirements and creates a model that can be used by other large businesses as well. It opens the door to attracting more businesses and more jobs for the communities we serve.”

“We know from experience that when people come together, they can do a lot of good in the world,” said Bobby Hollis, director of Global Energy at Facebook. “We came together with Dominion Energy Virginia to create a new tariff that ensures renewable energy solutions are accessible not just to Facebook, but other companies as well. This new opportunity for customers to access renewable energy enables us to get one step closer to our goal of powering 100 percent of our operations with clean and renewable energy.”

The new data center in Henrico County will be comprised of two separate buildings and administrative space totaling nearly one million square feet. Dominion Energy Virginia plans to construct multiple solar facilities in the Commonwealth (sites still to be determined) to both meet Facebook’s needs and benefit all of its customers.

The Facebook data center would be served under a new renewable rate option called Schedule RF (renewable facility), which Dominion Energy Virginia plans to file with the Virginia State Corporation Commission later this month. If approved, Schedule RF would allow Facebook to offset its annual energy needs with clean, renewable energy delivered to the grid. It would also create opportunities for other large companies wishing to make the same commitment, and would provide broader economic benefits to all of Dominion Energy Virginia’s 2.5 million customers. This new product offering would ultimately lead to new business opportunities. As a secondary economic impact, millions of dollars of new renewable energy projects would be built in the Commonwealth.

Dominion Energy Virginia and Facebook worked extensively on creating the Schedule RF structure to meet customer needs.

“Facebook is the latest partner we have in the renewable energy arena,” Blue added. “We remain ambitious and forward-thinking, and welcome any business or corporation to come to Virginia and see what we have to offer.”