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TechSalesforce

Salesforce Signs Contract with Texas Wind Farm

By
Heather Clancy
Heather Clancy
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By
Heather Clancy
Heather Clancy
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January 14, 2016, 10:43 AM ET
Key Speakers At The DreamForce Conference
Attendees arrive to the Moscone Center during the DreamForce Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013. Salesforce.com Inc. introduced an overhauled version of its mobile software, seeking to ensure clients and partners will be able to use more features of the company√s sales, marketing and customer service software. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPhotograph by David Paul Morris — Bloomberg via Getty Images

UPDATE: This story was updated Jan. 14 to clarify the relationship of these agreements to Salesforce’s current power consumption.

Mere weeks after disclosing its first big clean energy contract, cloud software giant Salesforce is talking up another deal. This one is with a wind farm being built in Texas, slated to start generating electricity in December.

Under the 12-year purchase agreement with developer EDF Renewable Energy, Salesforce (CRM) will buy approximately 102,000 megawatt-hours of power annually, or 24 megawatts of the farm’s anticipated capacity. Its first deal of this nature, announced last month, is larger. That arrangement covers about 125,000 megawatt-hours sourced from a facility owned by Enbridge (ENB) in West Virginia.

Considered together, the contracts cover more electricity than Salesforce used last year, according to CFO Mark Hawkins. He’s planning for the future. “I look for things that make economic sense and that give me predictiveness,” Hawkins said.

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Salesforce, like many other technology companies, has committed to powering the entirety of its operations with electricity generated by renewable sources such as solar or wind farms—at some unspecified future date.

Complicating this goal is the fact that Salesforce leases its data centers, which means it is more difficult to buy clean power directly. Both of these recent sourcing contracts are known as “virtual power purchase agreements.” The power isn’t actually being fed into Salesforce’s facilities directly; rather, it’s being added to the nearby electric grid.

WATCH: What do dipping oil prices mean for investment in renewable energy? Find out in this Fortune video:

Hawkins hinted that additional agreements are in the offing. “You should expect more,” he said.

Although it might seem counterintuitive, the state of Texas is the largest generator of wind energy in the United States. About 10% of its power comes from this source. Last July, Facebook (FB) disclosed plans to build a $1 billion wind-powered data center there. Construction should be complete by the summer.

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By Heather Clancy
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