Walton Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) and Silicon Ranch announced the completion of three new utility-scale solar installations in Georgia, with their generation being used to support Meta’s (formerly the Facebook company) operations in Georgia.
The three projects in question are the 100 MW Lumpkin Solar Farm, located in Stewart County, right on the Georgia-Alabama border, and constructed in partnership with IEA; the 80 MW Lancaster Solar Farm in Colquitt County, north of Tallahassee, Florida; and the 107 MW Snipesville II Solar Farm in Jeff Davis County, midway between Macon and Jacksonville, Florida. The latter two projects were constructed in collaboration with McCarthy Building Companies.
The solar facilities are part of an ongoing collaboration between Walton EMC and Silicon Ranch to supply 100% renewable energy for Meta’s data center in Newton County, Georgia. Since the initial agreement in 2018, Walton EMC and Silicon Ranch have completed the installation of six projects totaling 435 MW in capacity.
The companies have also broken ground on the seventh project in the portfolio, the DeSoto I Solar Farm, a 125 MW facility being constructed in Lee County, just east of Stewart County. Silicon Ranch plans to hire more than 400 craft workers to build the project, which is expected to be completed before the end of 2022.
The entire portfolio will integrate Silicon Ranch’s Regenerative Energy model, an approach to design, construction, and operations that co-locates renewable energy production with regenerative agriculture practices. Through managed sheep grazing using regenerative pastureland management practices, Silicon Ranch said it can restore the land at each array site to a functioning grassland ecosystem, while keeping each site in agricultural production.
