Meta and Apex Clean Energy Expand Joint Portfolio to 1.2 GW With Texas Starling Solar Deal
Apex's 144-MW Starling project extends a Texas procurement push that already includes Engie's 600-MW Stonewall County PPA and deals with RWE and Zelestra.
Meta and Apex Clean Energy on Wednesday (2026-09-16) signed a power purchase agreement for Apex's 144-MW Starling Solar project in Texas, lifting their joint portfolio to 1.2 GW and adding another solar contract to a growing slate of generation commitments Meta has assembled across multiple developers.5
The deal reflects Meta's drive to cover its Texas energy footprint well ahead of demand. The company has committed over $10 billion to a 1-GW data center in El Paso and separately agreed with Engie to purchase all output from a 600-MW solar project in Stonewall County, Texas, locking in renewable procurement well before the El Paso facility reaches full utilization.5
At 600 MW, the Engie Stonewall County project is the largest individual solar commitment in Meta's Texas PPA portfolio visible from disclosed agreements, though neither company has released a construction or commercial operations timeline. Engie has a stated target of 95 GW of installed renewable and storage capacity worldwide by 2030.5,4
Starling Solar's schedule is more specific. Apex said the project has completed its security screening study and entered the full interconnection study phase, with commercial operations targeted for 2028. Meta receives exclusive rights to all environmental attributes associated with Starling's output. Apex said the capacity would not have been built without Meta's commitment, framing the deal as incremental supply rather than a reallocation of generation already heading to market.5
That delivery target places Starling alongside other Meta-contracted Texas solar projects with similar timelines. RWE signed a long-term PPA with Meta on June 11 (2026-06-11) for the 298-MW Rabbit's Foot Solar project in Bowie County, northeastern Texas — the fourth agreement between the two companies, bringing their combined total to 872 MW over roughly two years, power-technology.com reported.3,2
Zelestra signed its eighth US PPA with Meta on June 9 (2026-06-09), covering the 180-MWdc Palmera Solar Plant in Freestone County, Texas. Their combined agreements span around 1.4 GWdc of solar capacity, expected to be fully operational by 2028, power-technology.com reported. The Palmera signing came as construction began on two earlier projects already in the portfolio.1
Construction is underway on Zelestra's 176-MWdc Skull Creek Solar Plant in Anderson County, Texas, and the 200-MWdc Reclamation Solar Project in Gibson County, Indiana. Zelestra's 81-MWdc Jasper County plant in Indiana, the first delivery under the partnership, has reached full commercial operation.1
Across Engie, RWE, Zelestra and Apex, Meta has contracted well over 2 GW of solar capacity in Texas and Indiana, with most of it not yet in service. Corporate PPAs of this scale provide developers with the offtake certainty needed to secure project financing, and Apex's statement that Starling would not have been built without Meta's commitment points to the direct link between hyperscaler procurement and incremental supply additions. But long-dated contracts do not shorten ERCOT interconnection queues or remove the cost increases that often appear when projects move from security screening into the full study. Grid operators carry no obligation to meet any developer's target commissioning date.5,3,1
Whether Starling Solar clears ERCOT's full interconnection study without significant cost revisions will be an early test of how much of Meta's contracted Texas pipeline holds its 2028 shape and, by extension, whether Engie's Stonewall project and the rest of the portfolio deliver when the El Paso data center needs them.5