KEYFACT Energy
- 95 megawatts of generating capacity expected to enter service in 2020 in City of Suffolk, Greensville County
- Long-term power purchase agreements with T-Mobile USA, Inc.
- Company one-fifth of way to its goal of having 3,000 additional megawatts of wind, solar in Virginia operational or in development by end of 2022
Dominion Generation, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Dominion Energy, Inc., has acquired two solar generating projects from Savion LLC, a subsidiary of Macquarie's Green Investment Group. The facilities are expected to be operational in 2020. Power generated at the two sites, as well as the renewable energy credits, will go to telecommunications company T-Mobile USA, Inc., under long-term contracts.
Since Dominion Energy said in 2018 that it would initiate a program to add 3,000 megawatts of solar and wind generation to the electric grid in Virginia by the end of 2022, the company has announced plans or power purchase agreements for about 675 megawatts of such energy – or 20 percent of its goal. Three-thousand megawatts of electric generating capacity can serve at least 750,000 customers when the facilities are producing energy.
The company has also announced a target to reduce carbon emissions from its power generating facilities 80 percent between 2005 and 2050. As of the end of 2018, Dominion Energy was already more than halfway to meeting that target.
"We are proud to partner with T-Mobile to provide clean energy for its operations across the company," said Paul D. Koonce, executive vice president and president and chief executive officer of Dominion Energy's Power Generation Group. "Cleaner energy on the grid benefits everyone, and we're looking to find similar customer solutions in the states where we do business."
"T-Mobile is all in on sustainability and has made a commitment through RE100 to source 100 percent renewable energy by 2021. This partnership with Dominion Energy and adding the Myrtle and Greensville solar projects to our portfolio is playing a big part in our progress, helping bring us to 95 percent of our goal!" said Mike Sievert, president and chief operating officer at T-Mobile. "We can't thank our partners enough for all their work and support in helping us reach this milestone for our company – and the planet!"
The 15-megawatt Myrtle Solar project, located on about 120 acres in the City of Suffolk, is expected to enter service in the second quarter of 2020. The 80-megawatt Greensville Solar facility, occupying more than 1,000 acres near Emporia, Va., in Greensville County, is targeted to come online in late 2020.
Since the General Assembly of Virginia passed the Grid Transformation and Security Act of 2018, the company has begun developing, signed offtake contracts for, or filed with the State Corporation Commission of Virginia for permission to build other solar facilities in the Virginia counties of Gloucester, Greensville, Halifax, Mecklenburg, Surry and Westmoreland.