Engie signs 48 MW solar PPA with QTS to supply its Irving, Texas data center campus

Engie North America announced on 18 August 2026 a 48 MWac solar power purchase agreement with QTS to supply renewable electricity to the data center operator's campus in Irving, Texas^[1]. The deal was executed in parallel with a separate long-term PPA between Engie and ABEI Energy, securing generation from ABEI's Lubio Solar project in Kaufman County, north-central Texas^[1].

The supply chain behind the deal

The structure links three parties: ABEI Energy develops and owns the generation asset, Engie sits in the middle as offtaker and retail supplier, and QTS takes 48 MWac of the project's output through its agreement with Engie. Lubio Solar is an approximately 61 MWac project currently ahead of its commercial-operation date, with grid connection to ERCOT targeted for April 2028^[1].

Once operational, the project is expected to deliver:

• Approximately 150 GWh of electricity annually
• An estimated 100,778 metric tons of CO₂ avoided per year, according to Engie

The transaction also marks ABEI Energy's first renewable energy deal with Engie in the United States, extending a partnership the two companies already hold in Europe^[1].

QTS's Irving footprint

QTS operates a data center campus at 6431 Longhorn Drive in Irving, adjacent to Dallas, offering 147 MW of critical power capacity across three buildings on a 55-acre site^[1]. The company also holds Texas campuses in Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Dallas^[1]. QTS is owned by funds managed by Blackstone.

The 48 MW PPA covers roughly a third of the Irving campus's nameplate critical load, making it a material renewable procurement for a single site rather than a portfolio-level instrument.

Engie's position in the data center PPA market

Engie ranked first globally in BloombergNEF's 2025 renewable corporate PPA benchmark, having signed 3.6 GW of new agreements in 2025 and 13.8 GW since 2011 - the highest cumulative total over that period. Its data center counterparties include Meta, Google, and Amazon. The QTS deal fits a pattern of Engie structuring integrated arrangements that combine generation offtake with retail supply, rather than selling standalone virtual PPAs.

The broader market context is relevant: BloombergNEF recorded 55.9 GW of corporate clean energy PPAs globally in 2025, down 10% from the 2024 record, with technology companies accounting for 49% of global activity. Data center operators are increasingly the marginal buyer keeping the market near record levels even as the broader corporate buyer pool contracts.

The deal to watch is the Lubio project's path to commercial operation. Kaufman County sits in ERCOT's north-central zone, where solar interconnection queues remain congested and curtailment risk is non-trivial. Whether the April 2028 COD holds - and how the retail supply arrangement handles basis risk between the project's delivery point and QTS's Irving load - will determine how much of the contracted 150 GWh actually lands on QTS's meter.