SRP’s new Buckeye solar-battery facility now running, will help power Google data center
Arizona’s largest operational battery energy storage system, intended to help power a new Google facility in the Valley, is now up and running.
Salt River Project and renewable energy company NextEra Energy Resources LLC said that the Sonoran Solar Energy Center in Buckeye — which is able to charge a 1 gigawatt-hour battery energy solar system — will help match the electricity consumed by a Google data center campus in the works in Mesa along with other customer needs.
The 3,000-acre Sonoran Solar Energy Center is located near the State Route 85 and Riggs Road alignment. It was first announced in the summer of 2021. At the time, the project estimated a $600 million capital investment in the community and a $500,000 annual tax impact.
The Google data center campus will also be helped by another solar and battery storage center in Pinal County. That 88-megawatt facility, called the Storey Energy Center, is located in Coolidge, southeast of Phoenix.
When the sun is shining, the Buckeye and Coolidge centers — both operated by subsidiaries of NextEra — generate enough energy to power almost 80,000 typical homes, and they can store up to four hours of energy for high-demand times.
SRP and NextEra are also working on a wind-energy facility in northern Arizona. The Babbit Ranch Energy Center, which started construction in the spring of 2023, will be able to generate 161 megawatts and will also support Google, SRP said. That facility is located on the Babbitt Ranches property north of Flagstaff near other renewable energy projects that will support SRP.
“SRP and the Valley are fortunate to have sustainability focused organizations like Google located here who help accelerate the transition to carbon-free power resources,” said Bobby Olsen, Chief Planning, Strategy and Sustainability Officer at SRP, in a statement. “We also value our partnerships with developers like NextEra Energy Resources who support SRP in developing renewable resources in a rapid timeframe as we prioritize delivering affordable, reliable and sustainable power to all SRP customers.”
Google started construction this summer on the first of three phases of its $1 billion data center in southeast Mesa. Google’s participation in the projects is part of its goal to reach net-zero emissions as a company.
“We’re aiming for every Google campus to operate on clean electricity every hour of every day by 2030, including in Arizona where we are excited to put down roots with our first data center in the state currently under construction,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, Global Head of Data Center Energy at Google. “The collaboration with Salt River Project and NextEra is accelerating decarbonization in Arizona and our own carbon-free journey in the region.”
SRP earlier this month revised its sustainability goals to make them more ambitious as part of a five-year update of the goals, saying it is now in better position to do so.
Last fall, SRP CEO Jim Pratt said SRP expects to add 20,000 megawatts of capacity, which will be made up of 90% of renewable technologies.
Arizona ranked No. 9 for photovoltaic solar installations in the U.S. last year, adding 861 megawatts to the electric grid and marking a 25.7% increase over 685 megawatts that came online in 2022, according to the market insight report released earlier this month by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie.