Power generated from the solar park, which will be developed in Rutherford County, will be used by Google to partially power its $600m expanded data centre in Lenoir, North Carolina.
In 2013, Google partnered with Duke Energy to create Green Source Rider program to enable customers to buy large amounts of renewable energy directly from their utilities, with no additional costs to other ratepayers.
Duke Energy distributed energy resources senior vice-president Rob Caldwell said: "Having Google as the first company to publicly announce its participation is extremely satisfying."
Duke Energy also agreed with Google on the specific project and additional costs associated with energy from the solar facility, under the program.
However, other customers of Duke Energy will not pay for the project.
Google data center energy and location strategy head Gary Demasi said: "We’ve agreed to purchase 1.2GW of renewable power globally and we’re working to power 100% of our operations with renewables.
"Not only does it enable us to purchase renewable energy for our North Carolina operations, it will empower others in the state to do the same."
In North Carolina, Duke Energy has more than 20 solar facilities in addition to purchasing power from 600 solar facilities.
Image: Google’s data center in Lenoir, North Carolina, US. Photo: courtesy of Duke Energy Corporation.
