Construction began on Nov. 4 at Cypress Knee Solar, a 250-megawatt solar farm in Chicot County, in the southeastern corner of Arkansas, with Meta lined up to buy the electricity it produces. The developer, EDP Renewables North America, expects to finish the project by 2028.
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Meta’s long-term power purchase agreement was announced in May, so the groundbreaking marks the point where a contract turned into earthmoving. Several hundred construction jobs are expected, along with about $25 million in revenue for the county.
EDP Renewables and the Meta power purchase agreement
EDP Renewables North America, the Houston-based U.S. arm of the Portuguese utility group, announced the deal on May 4 in a company release on the Arkansas agreement. Under a long-term power purchase agreement, Meta takes the output of all 250 megawatts, and the facility adds new generation to the local grid. Utility Dive’s reporting on the announcement noted that the project is Meta’s third agreement with the developer, lifting the total energy the two companies have arranged to 545 megawatts.
Amanda Yang, Meta’s head of clean and renewable energy, said the company is pleased to widen its collaboration with the developer and that the Arkansas project will create local jobs. Sandhya Ganapathy, chief executive of EDP Renewables North America, told Electrek that projects like this one help strengthen grid reliability while creating jobs. EDP’s release quotes Ganapathy saying that Cypress Knee and the broader Meta portfolio help power a reliable, modern American grid, and a line in the same release says the project supports Meta’s efforts to add new generation to the grid. Meta says its goal is to match all of its yearly electricity use with renewable generation. Electrek’s coverage of the groundbreaking also notes that the company is backing new gas plants to meet rising demand, so the solar deal sits alongside fossil capacity rather than replacing it. Utility Dive also noted that a developer fact sheet describes commercial operations starting the year after the deal, which does not clearly match the 2028 completion date in the release, and the EDP project page says its partner CoVolt is hiring for onsite construction support.
EDP Renewables North America describes itself as a Houston-based developer with 61 wind farms, 29 solar parks and four energy storage sites. It reports having developed more than 12,900 megawatts and operating more than 12,300 megawatts of onshore renewable capacity, with over 1,000 employees. Cypress Knee is a mid-sized addition to that portfolio. By simple subtraction from the 545-megawatt total, the two earlier Meta agreements with the developer come to roughly 295 megawatts, a figure inferred here rather than stated in the release.
Chicot County revenue, jobs and community spending
EDP’s project page for Cypress Knee Solar places the array near Lake Village, on flat land close to the Mississippi River Delta, and describes more than $400 million in capital investment. About $25 million is expected to flow to local governments, which Utility Dive says would arrive over the project’s 30-year life through an Industrial Revenue Bond agreement. The project page also estimates the plant would save 317 million gallons of water each year, an estimate EDP makes and Electrek does not repeat.
Before breaking ground, the developer says it has given more than $77,000 in Chicot County during development. That money restored the Lakeside High School greenhouse, supported the Lakeside Robotics team and funded the Lake Village food pantry. A separate economic-benefits fact sheet from the developer covers the project’s local economic effects.
The facility sits in one of the least populated corners of the state, near the Louisiana line, where flat land and open acreage suit a large array. The county revenue figure matters locally because a project of this size can add a meaningful share to a rural government’s budget, though EDP’s materials describe it as an estimate and tie it to the bond agreement rather than to any guaranteed annual payment.
The power question around Meta in Arkansas and Louisiana
Solar is only part of how Meta is feeding its data centers. Utility Dive tallied other recent deals: 11 power purchase agreements totaling 2.1 gigawatts with NextEra Energy in December 2025, and an Entergy Louisiana agreement from March 2026 to deliver 5.2 gigawatts of natural gas capacity for Meta’s $27 billion Hyperion data center in Richland Parish. Nuclear arrangements with Oklo, Vistra and TerraPower for up to 6.6 gigawatts were reported in January.
Meta’s own website says it routinely partners with energy providers on long-term agreements, according to Utility Dive, and Electrek counts Cypress Knee as another 250 megawatts of solar for the company. Next to those figures, 250 megawatts is a modest increment, and the date that matters is 2028, when construction is supposed to be complete, roughly two years after the November 2026 groundbreaking. The sources do not say how much of Cypress Knee’s output will reach Meta’s Arkansas operations versus the wider grid, and the developer’s project page still describes the plant in future tense, leaving the exact commissioning schedule to be confirmed as work proceeds.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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