670,000 solar panels in Colbert County support Facebook data center

Ørsted, a Danish solar company, announced the completion of a 670,000 solar panel project in Colbert County near the town of Cherokee, Alabama. 

TVA and Facebook Support Solar

Located in the Tennessee Valley Authority (‘TVA‘) service area, the solar farm will support the sustainability goals of Facebook’s data center in Huntsville, Alabama that just started operations.

“This is the result of a several year partnership with Facebook,” Scott Fiedler with TVA told The Bama Buzz. “They were one of the first Green Invest customers to work with TVA. This solar site is like winning the Superbowl. It is our first Green Invest site to come online, and it’s right here in Alabama. It’s also our largest solar facility now at 227 megawatts, making North Alabama the epicenter for solar.”

Called the Muscle Shoals solar PV project, Ørsted acquired the site in 2020 from Longroad Energy and has 1.4 GW of solar and storage capacity in operation and under construction.

“We’re very excited to add to our high-quality, diverse customer base through this long-term partnership with TVA and Facebook,” says Vishal Kapadia, Chief Commercial Officer of Ørsted’s Onshore business, adding: “The acquisition and completion of Muscle Shoals represents the continued successful execution of our expansion strategy in which we seek to complement our core market greenfield development activities with opportunistic acquisitions in new markets to diversify our portfolio.”

Solar Key to Reduce Carbon Emissions

Since 2005, TVA has reduced carbon emissions by 63%. With a variety of initiatives, the utility plans to reduce its carbon emissions to 70% by 2030, 80% by 2035, and to achieve net-zero emission generation by 2050.

“Over the next 10 years. We plan to install up to 10,000 megawatts of solar in our system,” added Fiedler.  “TVA is the leader in the Southeast United States, with 50% more renewable energy than our closest peers. It’s absolutely huge what we’re doing. TVA is on a path to a cleaner future. Year after year, you’re gonna see more of these facilities come online, and you will see solar energy grow and grow.”

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