RICHMOND, Va., March 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the
Commonwealth of Virginia, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Dominion
Virginia Power, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dominion Resources,
Inc. (NYSE: D), announced a partnership to construct a new facility
and bring 20 megawatts of solar energy onto the grid in
Virginia—enough energy to power 5,000 homes.
"This agreement is a tremendous step forward in our ongoing
effort to make Virginia a leader in the renewable energy economy,"
said Governor Terry McAuliffe. "This
partnership will help lower carbon emissions in Virginia and diversify our energy portfolio,
while growing the solar and data center industries in Virginia. This is a prime example of the type
of creative thinking and public-private cooperation we need to
build a new Virginia economy."
"By investing in these projects and partnering with states and
utilities, Microsoft can provide long-term certainty needed to
expand the amount of renewable energy available on the grid," said
Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental
Strategist, Microsoft. "We are pleased to play a role in this
project, as it will bring new, additional clean energy onto the
grid in Virginia."
Dominion Virginia Power will
construct the facility on land it already owns in Fauquier County, adjacent to its Remington generating station.
"This forward-looking partnership will assist us in our
continued commitment to increase the renewable energy available to
serve our customers in Virginia,"
said Thomas F. Farrell, II,
Chairman, President and CEO of Dominion Resources, Inc. "Microsoft
and the Commonwealth play key roles in making this large-scale
solar project possible, and we look forward to working with
them."
The project is anticipated to be in service in late 2017,
subject to regulatory approval.
Dominion committed to 400 MW of solar in Virginia by 2020. Microsoft has previously
announced agreements to purchase 175 megawatts of wind energy in
Illinois that fully powers their
Chicago data center with wind
energy and 110 MW of wind energy in Texas that powers their San Antonio data center.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft)
is the leading platform and productivity company for the
mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower
every person and every organization on the planet to achieve
more.
About Dominion Virginia Power
Dominion Virginia Power is a subsidiary of Dominion
(NYSE: D), one of the nation's largest producers and transporters
of energy. Dominion provides energy or products and services to
more than five million customers in 14 states. It has a portfolio
of approximately 24,300 megawatts of generation and 6,500 miles of
electric transmission lines. Dominion also operates one of the
nation's largest natural gas storage systems with 933 billion cubic
feet of storage capacity. For more information about Dominion,
visit the company's website at www.dom.com.
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SOURCE Dominion Virginia Power