Danish multinational energy developer Ørsted and Arizona utility Salt River Project (SRP) have commissioned the Eleven Mile Solar Center, a 300 MW solar project and 300 MW/1200 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Pinal County to provide power to businesses, homes and Meta's data center in nearby Mesa.
The project is part of Ørsted 's $20 billion investment in clean energy for Arizona. It has the capacity to produce enough energy to power 65,000 homes and store 1,200 MWh of power each day.
"Solar energy paired with battery energy storage will be critical to the reliable delivery of power as the demand for electricity grows," said David Hardy, Group EVP and CEO Americas at Ørsted. "Arizona has one of the highest growth rates of electricity in the country due to the surge in data centers and the reshoring of American manufacturing."
Mesa, already one of Arizona’s largest cities, gained an economic boost when Meta broke ground on its $1 billion data center campus in 2022. Last year, Meta signed a power supply agreement with Ørsted to cover demand from the 2.5 million-square-foot facility.
Nationwide, the growth in artificial intelligence and cloud computing is leading to an anticipated 21 GW of power demand growth through construction of new data centers this decade. Some forecasters say the data center boom will be closer to 47 GW by the early 2030s.
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The project will generate approximately $80 million to the local community for public services in the form of tax revenue. It also created over 1,000 construction jobs in the local area and will require additional roles for operation and maintenance over the next several decades.
Ørsted contracted American companies like First Solar and battery storage firm Fluence NEXTracker, in procuring panels, batteries, and tracking equipment for the project.
SRP has approximately 3,000 MW of carbon-free energy, including more than 1,400 MW of solar, serving its customers with addition of the project. SRP also has nearly 1,300 MW of battery and pumped hydro storage to support its grid.
Moreover, SRP is working to 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 proceeds with the planned retirement of 1,300 MW of coal resources.
The project boosts Ørsted’s profile to more than 5,000 MW across the U.S., with more capacity to be introduced before the end of 2024, the company says.
