Data center developer Tract is partnering with solar project developer Silicon Ranch to more responsibly site data centers and renewable energy projects to enable these power-hungry data operations to build green campuses more quickly while reducing development risk.
Silicon Ranch’s Lancaster Solar Farm, which supports Meta’s renewable energy goals in Georgia.
The hyperscale data center segment has made strong commitments for operations to be carbon neutral by 2030 or sooner. According to BloombergNEF, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google are amongst the largest corporate buyers of solar and wind energy in the world. As hyperscale growth continues, however, matching solar project locations and delivery timelines with data center offtake is becoming more challenging without more advanced planning and coordination. Given the scale of data center demand, matching it to renewable projects earlier in the development process improves certainty and stability for the entire system.
Tract develops fully entitled, master-planned data center parks that pre-position transmission capacity, water, sewer, roads and pads to provide its customers shorter development cycles in the form of immediately usable campuses. As part of the collaboration, Silicon Ranch will initiate site acquisition and interconnection processes for owned and operated utility-scale solar and battery projects — exceeding 500 MW — to directly support the scale and timing of data centers on Tract campuses in Nevada and Utah.
“Silicon Ranch has deep experience supporting hyperscale data centers, with more than 2.5 GW under contract with this important customer segment. We recognize their needs are evolving and are proud that this collaboration with Tract enables us to create a next generation solution that combines shovel-ready development sites with access to pre-positioned renewable generation, uniquely tailored to the needs of these customers,” said Silicon Ranch Co-Founder and CEO, Reagan Farr.
“Our relationship with Silicon Ranch has developed over the past two years based on a joint recognition that delivering speed and certainty for tomorrow’s data center scale cannot rely on the processes and commercial models that have supported data center growth to date,” explained Grant van Rooyen, Tract CEO and Managing Partner. “As renewable power and data centers intersect, we need to plan strategically, with a longer time horizon in mind. With Silicon Ranch, we found a partner to build thought leadership and we look forward to collaborating with them in Nevada, Utah and beyond.”
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