Singapore-based solar energy company Sunseap Group has signed a multi-year virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) with Facebook for solar energy from Singapore’s largest offshore floating solar farm in the Straits of Johor.

Power from a 5 MW offshore floating photovoltaic (PV) project will be exported to the national grid. All renewable energy credits (RECs) from the project will be transferred to Facebook under the VPPA, which will support the company’s operations in Singapore, including Facebook’s first custom-built data center in Asia.

A VPPA is a contract structure in which a buyer agrees to purchase a project’s renewable energy for a pre-agreed price. The energy can be produced from a renewable energy project located away from the buyer’s premises but co-located on the same grid.

The agreement signed with Facebook is Sunseap’s second VPPA with the tech company since October 2020 to supply around 100 MW of solar energy from over 1,200 rooftop installations across Singapore.

Facebook will receive renewable energy credits from the electricity generated by rooftop systems installed on 1,200 public housing residential blocks and 49 government buildings across Singapore. The project is expected to be completed in 2022.

Commenting on the deal, Lawrence Wu, Co-founder, and President of Sunseap Group said, “We are very pleased to be working with Facebook for a second VPPA. This partnership is another significant step for Sunseap towards helping corporations meet their sustainability goals. We are grateful for the leadership shown by companies like Facebook in seriously embracing sustainability, whether through reducing waste or minimizing and offsetting their carbon emissions.”

Urvi Parekh, Head of renewable energy at Facebook, added, “We are thankful for this partnership with Sunseap that helps us bring new solar energy to the Singapore grid in support of our operations in the area. This is our first floating solar project, so we’re particularly excited to support an innovative technology that will help bring more renewable energy projects online.”

In 2018, Facebook had said that it will power all its facilities, including office and data centers, with 100% clean and renewable energy by 2020.

In March this year, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Green Invest program and Facebook signed an agreement for the fourth renewable energy project. TVA will partner with Origis Energy to develop a 150 MW solar project equipped with 50 MW of storage capacity to support Facebook’s two data centers in the Tennessee Valley. The project is expected to be completed in late 2023.