Ga. co-op, Silicon Ranch complete 3 solar farms serving data center

Georgia electric cooperative Walton Electric Membership Corp. and renewable energy developer Silicon Ranch Corp. completed three utility-scale solar farms with a total capacity of 287 MWac that will help support Meta Platforms Inc.'s operations in Georgia.

The projects are the 100-MWac Lumpkin Solar Farm in Stewart County, the 80-MWac Lancaster Solar Farm in Calhoun County and the 107-MWac Snipesville II Solar Project in Jeff Davis County. Silicon Ranch funded the construction and will own, operate and maintain solar arrays, the company said in a Dec. 15 news release.

Silicon Ranch partnered with Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives Inc. to build the Lumpkin facility and McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. to build the Lancaster and Snipesville II projects.

The facilities are part of a collaboration between Walton Electric Membership Corp. and Silicon Ranch to supply 100% renewable power to Facebook parent Meta Platform's data center in Newton County, Ga. The agreement was announced in December 2018.