Meta signs 25-year off take deal for planned floating solar PV system to support regional data centres

Global online and AI giant Meta has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to support the development of a 150MW floating solar PV system in Singapore.

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, signed the renewable PPA through its local subsidiary Malkoha Pte Ltd with Sembcorp Solar Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singaporean utilities firm Sembcorp Industries.

Very little is known about the project, as only Sembcorp has published a press release, and that with very little in the way of specifics.

Under the terms of the renewable PPA, Sembcorp will build, own, and operate a 150MW floating solar PV system to be built on Kranji Reservoir, located in the northern part of Singapore near the Straits of Johor.

Once a former freshwater river that flowed into the sea, it was damned at the mouth to form the reservoir.

Certain conditions and approvals still need to be secured, but if all goes as planned, Sembcorp expects construction of the project to begin in the first half of 2027.

Once operational, power from the floating PV system would support Meta’s operations in the region, including its data centre operations in Singapore.

This would not be the first floating solar plant in Singapore, however, nor even the first in the near vicinity.

Singaporean solar energy provider Sunseap completed construction of a 5MW floating solar PV farm in March of 2021 that is located in the Straits of Johor, just off the coast of Woodlands, a town and planning area situated next to Kranji Reservoir.

Another, a 60MW array located on the Tengeh Reservoir in the country’s west, was completed in July of 2021 and has been integrated with Singapore’s Public Utilities Board’s nearby water treatment plants.

The island country and city-state of Singapore in fact boasts a number of floating solar PV projects in operation or under construction.

Given that Singapore consists of a single main island and 63 satellite islands and islets, there is very little available land for traditional solar PV projects to be built, which has forced Singaporean officials to turn to utilising its numerous reservoirs and waterways as potential locations to reach its goal of deploying at least 2GW worth of solar by 2030.