Facebook data centre to be powered by US$430 million wind farm in Nebraska
Face book says it’s closer to powering all of its operations with clean and renewable energy
By Anmar Frangoul
Construction has begun on a wind farm that will supply 100 per cent of the power required to operate a Facebook data centre in Papillion, Nebraska.
The Rattlesnake Creek wind farm in Dixon County, Nebraska, will have a capacity of 320 megawatts (MW). Under a power purchase agreement, Facebook will buy power from 200 MW of the farm’s capacity to operate its data centre.
Facebook’s director of global energy, Bobby Hollis, said that the business was now “one step closer to our goal of powering all of our operations with clean and renewable energy.”
A subsidiary of Enel Green Power North America (EGPNA), Rattlesnake Creek Wind Project, owns the site. EGPNA is the U.S. renewable energy business of the Enel Group; investment in the facility’s construction is approximately US$430 million.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. is “home to one of the largest and fastest-growing wind markets in the world.”