Facebook to build new, wind-powered data center

Facebook’s newest data center will be built in Fort Worth, completely powered by renewable energy.

Facebook worked with local energy companies to bring 200-megawatts of renewable wind power to the Texas grid, the company said Tuesday.

Producing about half the power of a typical coal plant, the wind farm will be located 90 miles from the data center on a 17,000-acre site in Clay County, Texas. The company did not identify the other sources of renewable energy or reveal how many megawatts of power the center will consume.

The Fort Worth project will be Facebook’s fifth privately owned data center, and the second using 100% renewable energy. Construction costs are expected to top $1 billion. Energy savings for previous centers have saved the company $2 billion over the last three years, Facebook said.

A shift to renewable energy is now a tech industry trend to clean energy. Google has already agreed to invest more than $2 billion in clean-energy projects, aiming to eventually use only renewable energy sources.

“100% renewable energy is quickly becoming the new benchmark for any company that is wanting to power its operations sustainably, particularly in the IT sector,” said David Pomerantz, Greenpeace senior climate and energy campaigner. “Companies that are really innovative we are seeing embrace this 100% renewable energy goal.”

nick.shively@latimes.com

Twitter: nick_shively