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    Ørsted & Salt River Project Start Up Solar-Storage Center to Support Meta’s Arizona Data Center

    Oct. 14, 2024
    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.
    Rendering of Mesa Data Center credit to Meta Platforms
    670d29264695a44bca90ac1c Meta Mesa

    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.

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    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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