Arevon Energy has signed Meta up for 349 MW of its Kelso solar project in Scott County, Missouri. The project is 430 MW across two phases. The contracts are described as environmental attributes agreements rather than straightforward power sales. And when they were signed, Kelso had not reached financial close or started construction.
Key takeaways
- Arevon Energy entered into two long-term Environmental Attributes Purchase Agreements with Meta Platforms for the Kelso solar project in Missouri, announced on 5 March 2024 and recorded in Leap as a 349 MW virtual PPA.
- The Kelso solar project in Scott County, Missouri, totals 430 MW across two phases, Kelso 1 at 246.5 MW and Kelso 2 at 183.5 MW, both owned and operated by Arevon Energy and connected to the MISO grid.
- Meta's 349 MW agreement covers about 81 percent of the Kelso project's 430 MW capacity; Leap also lists Tenaska as an offtaker of Kelso 2 alongside Meta.
- Enerdatics calculates the investment in Kelso at about $515 million, $295 million for Kelso 1 and $220 million for Kelso 2, or roughly $1.20 million per MW.
- Enerdatics records 20 solar PPAs signed by Meta in the US between January 2023 and December 2024, none with a disclosed tariff and only three with a disclosed contract length.
What is Meta actually buying at Kelso?
Meta is buying the green credentials of the electricity, and possibly a financial hedge on its price, rather than the electrons themselves. An environmental attributes purchase agreement transfers the renewable energy certificates a project generates. Each certificate represents one megawatt-hour of renewable power and is what a company uses to claim that its consumption is matched by clean generation.
Leap records the deal as a virtual PPA. In a virtual PPA, the project sells its power into the local wholesale market, here MISO, and the buyer and seller settle the difference between an agreed price and the market price in cash. The buyer receives the certificates. Nothing physical travels from a field in Missouri to a Meta data centre.
That is why the location of the project is less important to Meta than its size and timing. Kelso gives Meta a large, identifiable block of new solar generation it can point to, wherever its own load sits.
Why does an agreement signed before construction matter to Arevon?
Because it is what makes the project financeable. The agreements were announced in March 2024. Leap records that financial close for both phases was achieved in March 2025 and construction started in May 2025, about a year later.
Lenders want to know that a large share of a project's output has a creditworthy buyer before they commit. A long-term agreement with Meta covering about four-fifths of the capacity does that job. It turns a solar farm with merchant exposure into one with a contracted revenue stream, even if the contract settles financially rather than physically.
Arevon went back to Meta later the same year. In August 2024 it signed a further agreement with Meta for the 73 MW Heirloom solar project, also in MISO. Combined with Kelso, that is 422 MW of Arevon solar contracted to Meta within six months.
Who takes the rest of the Kelso output?
Leap does not record a buyer for the remaining 81 MW explicitly. It does list Tenaska as an offtaker of Kelso 2 alongside Meta, without recording how Kelso 2's output or certificates are divided between the two, so the exact split beyond Meta's 349 MW remains undisclosed.
The two phases also carry separate grid positions. Kelso 1 holds MISO interconnection position J1087 and Kelso 2 holds J1299, and both have executed interconnection agreements. Leap now lists both phases as operational, with an operational date of 4 March 2026, two years almost to the day after the Meta agreements were announced.
Enerdatics' data shows how opaque Meta's solar buying is, even as it grows. Leap records 20 US solar PPAs signed by Meta between January 2023 and December 2024. Not one discloses a tariff, and only three disclose a contract length, ranging from 20 to 25 years. Seven of the 20 are in MISO, adding up to 2,567 MW, and six of those seven were signed in 2024. At 349 MW, Kelso is the sixth largest of Meta's 20 solar contracts in the period, behind Invenergy's 760 MW portfolio, PacifiCorp's 525 MW Faraday contract, two 400 MW contracts with Longroad Energy and DESRI, and RWE's 374 MW County Run and Lafitte agreement.
What does the deal signal for corporate solar in MISO?
It signals that MISO has become a core market for large technology buyers. Six of Meta's 2024 solar contracts in Leap sit in MISO, more than in any other US grid. For a buyer that wants large, new projects it can name, MISO is where much of that supply was being contracted in 2024.
It also signals what a corporate buyer is worth to a developer at the pre-construction stage. At Enerdatics' estimate of $1.20 million per MW, Kelso needed about $515 million of capital. A buyer committed to more than four-fifths of the project is the anchor that lets that capital be raised. The pattern is common in Meta's portfolio: projects such as Excelsior's Faraday solar farm in Utah raised large financing packages on the back of Meta-linked offtake.
For Arevon, which has also tried different financing tools on projects such as Eland 2 in California, Kelso is a reminder that the contract comes before the capital. What remains undisclosed is the price Meta agreed to, and that is the number every other developer bidding for Meta's next contract would most like to see.
Frequently asked questions
What agreement did Arevon sign with Meta for the Kelso solar project? Arevon Energy entered into two long-term Environmental Attributes Purchase Agreements with Meta Platforms for the Kelso solar project in Missouri, announced on 5 March 2024. Leap records the deal as a 349 MW virtual PPA.
How large is the Kelso solar project? Kelso totals 430 MW in Scott County, Missouri, split into Kelso 1 at 246.5 MW and Kelso 2 at 183.5 MW. Enerdatics calculates the combined investment at about $515 million.
What price is Meta paying for Kelso's output? The price has not been disclosed. None of the 20 US solar PPAs Meta signed in 2023 and 2024 recorded in Leap carries a disclosed tariff.
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