Renewable energy developer Apex Clean Energy has announced a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Facebook for approximately 170MW of renewable power from its Lincoln Land Wind project in the US state of Illinois.

This latest transaction, the third since 2019, makes the social media giant Apex’s largest corporate customer by megawatt.

Lincoln Land Wind will help Facebook meet its goal of supporting its operations in the region with 100% renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75%.

In 2019, Facebook signed a 61.6MW PPA with Altavista Solar, Apex’s largest solar project to date, and a 200MW PPA with Aviator Wind East, which will be part of the largest single-phase, single-site wind project in the United States when it begins commercial operations in the coming months. The PPA with Lincoln Land Wind will help support the tech company’s operations in the region.

The project, located in Morgan County, Illinois, will generate approximately $65 million in local tax revenue, $90 million in payments to landowners, nearly 400 full-time local jobs during construction, and nine long-term local operations positions. Lincoln Land Wind is expected to begin operations in 2021.

The remaining 130MW from Lincoln Land Wind will be sold to another corporate off-taker to be announced at a later date.

“The clean energy industry has long recognized Facebook as a leader,” said Mark Goodwin, Apex Clean Energy president and CEO. “In its early commitment to utilizing 100% renewable energy, and now its continuing work to fulfill that pledge, Facebook has led from the front of the pack. Apex has a strong track record in enabling corporate clean energy procurement, and we’re excited that the Lincoln Land Wind PPA results in Facebook becoming our largest partner to date.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Apex once again to bring an additional 170 MW of new renewable energy to the grid,” said Urvi Parekh, Head of Renewable Energy at Facebook. “At Facebook, we are committed to not only supporting our operations with 100% renewable energy, but to helping accelerate the transition to renewable energy. With our recent announcement of our new data center in DeKalb, we are excited to bring renewable energy to Illinois.”