The project is located at the south end of Southwest Baldwin Road, near the Les Schwab distribution center
In July 2018, a collaboration between Invenergy, Pacific Power and Facebook was announced at a press conference in Prineville, with former Mayor Betty Roppe, Prineville leaders and officials and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in attendance.
Fast forward more than two years, and the Invenergy project includes Prineville Solar at 40 Megawatts (MW) and Millican Solar at 60 MW, with a project total size of 100 MW. The Prineville and Millican Solar Energy Centers have a nameplate capacity of 100 MW, according to Sophie Lee, Senior Analyst in Communications for Invenergy.
According to their website, Invenergy harnesses the power of the sun to deliver low-cost, clean energy solutions to customers and communities.
“Solar technology is simple and scalable and provides great flexibility for the future of the grid,” their website went on to say. “As a daytime power source, solar helps meet electricity demand during peak demand hours. Invenergy has been applying its diverse energy experience and innovation toward expanding the company’s portfolio to include power generation since 2012.”
Construction of the Invenergy solar project began in 2019, and the facility became operational in 2021. The project is located at the south end of Southwest Baldwin Road, near the Les Schwab distribution center, and the photovoltaic power station is located on 300 acres south of the Apple data center.
According to the Solar Energy Technologies Office website, “Photovoltaic (PV) technologies — more commonly known as solar panels — generate power using devices that absorb energy from sunlight and convert it into electrical energy through semiconducting materials. These devices, known as solar cells, are then connected to form larger power-generating units known as modules or panels.”
Invenergy received a power purchase agreement as part of a solar power generation partnership announced in the summer of 2019. The collaboration between Pacific Power and Facebook was designed to spur 437 MW of new solar developments, including the two projects, totaling 100 MW in the Prineville area.
“We are excited to announce that Facebook’s Prineville data center will be supported by 100% renewable energy,” Peter Freed, energy strategy manager for Facebook said during a prior press conference in 2018. “In partnership with Pacific Power, Facebook is enabling the development of new solar projects on the electric grid serving our data center. Two of those solar projects are located right here in Crook County, and we estimated this projects will increase the amount of solar power in Oregon by more than 20%.”
The solar power generated from Invenergy’s Prineville Solar (55 MW) and Millican Solar (45 MW) support a larger arrangement through Pacific Power to match 100% of Facebook’s electric use at its data center in Prineville with renewable energy.
Generally, there are approximately 450 panels per acre in the two projects. Prineville Solar and Millican Solar cover approximately 320 acers and 400 acres, respectively.
“Invenergy develops projects where there is a strong resource, in this case solar, access to the local transmission grid, demand for the power and most importantly landowners and community stakeholders who are interested in participating,” indicated Lee. “Crook County was a great fit as the area has a reliable solar resource and the county’s comprehensive plan encourages solar energy development. The data centers in Crook County draw a large electric load and those companies prefer for that energy to come from renewable sources.”
Invenergy received tax credits for the project. The federal Investment Tax Credit provides a 30% credit for qualified expenditures on projects that began construction in 2019. That credit drops to 26% for projects that began building in 2020, then 22% for power plants that broke ground in 2021, and finally 10% for projects that begin construction in 2022 or later.
Lee added that the land use development process varies from project to project. In the case of Prineville Solar and Millican Solar, the development process began in 2014 and construction began in 2019. Part of the process includes surveys of cultural and historic resources done by the company or the county from which they purchased the land.
“Qualified third-party archeologists were engaged to complete the required surveys of cultural and historic resources and submitted to the local tribes and the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for concurrence,” continued Lee. “Invenergy did not purchase the land for the solar projects. The projects are hosted on leased land.”
Prineville Solar and Millican Solar supported more than 200 jobs during construction. Currently, two full-time operations and maintenance technicians support the projects.
