Dominion has announced a major expansion of its solar alliance with Amazon Web Services (AWS), adding 180 megawatts of generating capacity at five Virginia locations. The deal will build Dominion’s solar fleet to 434 megawatts in Virginia and North Carolina, close to its goal of 500 megawatts by 2020. Dominion’s eight-state fleet will reach 1,400 megawatts by 2017.
The Richmond-based utility is acquiring four 20-megawatt projects from Virginia Solar LLC as well as a 100-megawatt development from Community Energy Solar in Southampton County. Dominion Energy, a Dominion subsidiary, will supply electricity under the terms of long-term power purchase agreements with AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing enterprise.
AWS, a major operator of data centers in Northern Virginia, has announced a long-term goal of achieving 100% renewable energy for its global infrastructure, with a milestone of 50% by the end of 2017.
“We are nowhere near done,” said Peter DeSantis, AWS vice president-infrastructure, said in a press release. “We will continue to make progress toward 100 percent and have many exciting initiatives planned.”
