ENGIE North America has completed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Google to supply 90 MW of renewable energy from its 350 MW Chillingham solar project in Bell County, Texas.
The agreement in the U.S. expands on ENGIE and Google’s previous partnerships in Europe and is the fifth renewable energy project under agreement between the two companies globally.
To support its operations in Texas, Google will purchase a portion of the facility’s output which is expected to begin operation by the end of 2024. ENGIE will construct and operate the solar project located north of Austin.
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The agreement was facilitated through LEAP (LevelTen Energy’s Accelerated Process), which was co-developed by Google and LevelTen Energy to make sourcing and executing clean energy PPAs more efficient. The process will also enable Google achieve 24/7 carbon-free energy (CFE) on every grid it operates by 2030.
The solar project has employed over 300 skilled workers during construction, many of them local to the region and will generate more than $72 million in tax revenues to support the local community over the life of the project. It includes about $53 million for local school districts.
The project will join ENGIE’s portfolio of around 8 GW of renewable projects including solar, wind and battery storage in operation or construction across North America, once operational. The PPA will help ENGIE close nearly 1 GW of signed PPAs in the U.S. for 2024.
Another LEAP project by Google and LevelTen Energy is the 435-MW solar PPA with energyRe which was announced earlier this month. Overall, Google has signed close to 1 GW of renewable PPAs this year, according to the company.
Earlier this year, French-based ENGIE closed on close to $1 billion in equity financing to support a growing 1.3-GW portfolio of solar and wind energy projects across the U.S.
