Microsoft signed two solar contracts with EDP Renewables on the same day in March 2024. One covers two projects in Texas and Illinois. The other covers a single 110 MWac park near Jerseyville, Illinois, and carries a second supplier and a label the first does not: an Environmental Justice PPA. The label describes a structure, not a slogan.
Key takeaways
- EDP Renewables North America and Volt Energy Utility signed a power purchase agreement with Microsoft, announced on 19 March 2024, for the 110 MWac Hickory Solar Park near Jerseyville, Illinois.
- The Hickory PPA covers the purchase of electricity and renewable energy credits (RECs) for 15 years and is termed an Environmental Justice PPA, a contract model developed by Microsoft and Volt Energy.
- On the same day, EDP Renewables signed a virtual PPA with Microsoft for the 150 MW Cattlemen II solar project near Austin, Texas, and the 140 MW Wolf Run solar project in southern Illinois, and Leap records the three projects together at 389 MW.
- Enerdatics records 16 solar PPAs signed by Microsoft in the United States between January 2023 and June 2025, of which 11 disclose a capacity totalling 2,967.5 MW, five disclose a duration, and none discloses a tariff.
- Hickory is one of two Microsoft solar PPAs in Leap that involve Volt Energy, alongside the 125 MW Wheatsborough project in Ohio announced in January 2024.
What is an Environmental Justice PPA?
It is a power contract that routes part of a renewable project's economics into community programmes. Microsoft and Volt Energy Utility signed a framework for this model in 2021, according to Leap. The framework was designed to use corporate emission targets to support environmental justice, community and diversity initiatives.
Leap's record of the Wheatsborough contract shows how the model works in practice. Volt Energy buys electricity from the project developer, in that case Apex Clean Energy, and sells it on to Microsoft under the framework. A percentage of the revenue produced by the PPA is invested in the Sharing the Power Foundation, which focuses on environmental health and economic justice in historically underserved communities. The contract also prioritises women and minority leadership and job creation, habitat restoration and end-of-life recycling.
That likely explains why Hickory lists two suppliers. EDP Renewables is the project company in the contract, and Volt Energy Utility sits in the contract chain between the project and the buyer, as it does at Wheatsborough. For Microsoft, the arrangement buys the same electricity and RECs as an ordinary PPA, with a social component attached to the revenue rather than to a separate donation.
Why sign Hickory separately from Wolf Run and Cattlemen II?
Because the two contracts are built differently. The Wolf Run and Cattlemen II agreement is a virtual PPA, a financial contract in which the buyer pays a fixed price for power and RECs while the project sells its output into the wholesale market. The two sides then settle the difference between the fixed price and the market price. No electricity flows directly to Microsoft.
The Hickory agreement adds Volt Energy as a party and the environmental justice terms that come with it. Packaging it separately keeps those terms attached to one project rather than spreading them across a portfolio in two different power markets. Hickory sits in MISO, the grid operator covering much of the US Midwest, while Cattlemen II is in Texas.
Leap records the three projects together at 389 MW. Their individual capacities, 110 MWac at Hickory, 140 MW at Wolf Run and 150 MW at Cattlemen II, add up to 400 MW. The record does not explain the 11 MW difference, and the contracted volume of each agreement is not disclosed.
How does Hickory compare with Microsoft's other US solar contracts?
It is smaller than most and more transparent on term than most. Enerdatics' data shows 16 solar PPAs signed by Microsoft in the United States between January 2023 and June 2025, every one of them announced from January 2024 onward. Eleven disclose a capacity, and those 11 total 2,967.5 MW, an average of about 270 MW per contract. The largest is Pivot Energy's virtual PPA for up to 500 MWac of community solar, followed by AES's 475 MW portfolio in MISO.
Only five of the 16 disclose a duration. Hickory, Cordelio Power's Winfield and Invenergy's Hardin III all run for 15 years. ENGIE's Twin Lakes and Pivot Energy's community solar contract run for 20. No Microsoft solar PPA in the set discloses a price, so the duration is often the only commercial term a reader can compare.
The geography is spread across grids. Six of the 16 contracts sit in MISO alone and five in ERCOT, the Texas market. Two are in PJM, one is in California's CAISO, and two span several markets. Hickory is one of the MISO six.
March 2024 was the busiest month in the series. Primergy's 408 MW Ash Creek contract was announced on 11 March, the two EDP agreements on 19 March, and two Leeward Renewable Energy contracts for the Cradle and Morrow Lake projects in Texas on 27 March. Five of the 16 records fall in those three weeks.
What does the deal signal for corporate solar buying in the Midwest?
It signals that Microsoft is using contract design, not just volume, to differentiate its buying. A buyer signing as many contracts as Microsoft can set terms that a smaller buyer cannot. The Environmental Justice framework is one of those terms, and it has now been applied to projects from at least two developers, Apex Clean Energy at Wheatsborough and EDP Renewables at Hickory.
For developers, the framework adds a party to the contract rather than a new owner. The revenue share sits within the PPA itself, which makes the model easier to repeat across projects than a bespoke partnership would be.
The Microsoft contracts that do disclose financing show how quickly a signed PPA turns into debt. Primergy borrowed $588 million for Ash Creek on the same day it announced Microsoft as buyer, a structure covered in our post on Primergy's Ash Creek loan. In Louisiana, Recurrent Energy's Bayou Galion project carries both a Microsoft contract and a cooperative contract, as our post on Microsoft and a Louisiana co-op at Bayou Galion explains. The open question for Hickory is how much of the 15-year revenue ends up in the community fund, a figure none of the announcements discloses.
Frequently asked questions
Who signed the Hickory Solar PPA with Microsoft? EDP Renewables North America and Volt Energy Utility signed the agreement with Microsoft for the 110 MWac Hickory Solar Park near Jerseyville, Illinois, announced on 19 March 2024.
How long is the Hickory PPA? The agreement runs for 15 years and covers both electricity and renewable energy credits.
What other projects did Microsoft contract from EDP Renewables at the same time? Microsoft signed a virtual PPA with EDP Renewables for the 150 MW Cattlemen II project near Austin, Texas, and the 140 MW Wolf Run project in southern Illinois. Leap records the three projects together at 389 MW.
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