SRP

Existing solar plant on SRP's grid: Saint Solar is a 100 MW solar plant initiated by SRP’s Sustainable Energy Offering and is owned and operated by a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC.

Last year, Google broke ground on a $600 million data center in Mesa. The company has now reached an eight year deal with SRP to power the facility with clean energy.

The agreement involves three facilities operated by NextEra Energy, where wind and solar energy provide power to SRP’s grid.

That includes solar facilities that opened last year in Buckeye and Coolidge, and a wind farm under construction in Coconino County.

Grant Smedley is SRP’s director of resource planning.

“Well, we are seeing significant increases in our demand for electricity. This is one of the fastest growing areas of the country and so our peak demand for electricity as well as the demand that our customers need over the course of a year are both increasing quite a bit," he said. 

He also says partnering with Google will help the utility’s transition to clean energy. 

"They're really going to help us to accelerate our transition to carbon-free power generation resources but also helping to keep those costs of doing so manageable for all of our customers so we're really excited to be on this journey with them," he said. 

Google says the Mesa data center is expected to become operational in 2025.