Commercial, Solar  -  November 16, 2020

Starbucks, Gap, Bloomberg, Salesforce and others to receive power from new solar project

A 133.6 MW solar plant that will supply energy to Bloomberg, Cox Enterprises, Gap, Salesforce, Starbucks and Workday was recently completed and will be brought online this week.

The Fern Solar project was constructed in Edgecombe County, N.C., by BayWa r.e. and consists of 353,000 panels. With a capacity to generate 238 GWh of electricity annually, it is the largest BayWa r.e. project in the U.S.

The companies that will be receiving clean power from the solar project made the project possible through a VPPA facilitated by LevelTen Energy. Bloomberg, Cox Enterprises, Gap, Salesforce, and Workday formed a Corporate Renewable Energy Aggregation Group, which will purchase 42.5 MW of the plant’s installed generated capacity, while Starbucks entered into a separate VPPA for 46 MW.

“Fern Solar is our largest solar project built to date in the U.S., but it is more than a milestone renewable project -- it's a story about how companies and people can come together to move the needle forward,” Jam Attari, CEO of BayWa r.e. Solar Projects, said in a statement. “The world is rapidly transitioning to clean energy, and we'll get there faster when we innovate together.”

BayWa r.e. Secured tax equity from RBC Capital Markets and construction and permanent debt from Rabobank and Banco Sabadell.

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