Meta has recently bolstered its renewable power portfolio, purchasing an additional 200 megawatts of solar energy from Engie, a multinational electric utility company. This furthers Meta’s impressive renewable power capacity, which already surpasses 12 gigawatts.
This development is apt as tech firms, like Meta, strive to meet the surge in power needs due to rapid data center expansion. A potential result of this rapid growth is that by 2027, we could see 50% of new AI servers being underpowered.
Meta is investing heavily in new capacity, with plans to establish a 2-gigawatt data center in Louisiana. Interestingly, this campus is expected to run on natural gas rather than renewable power. The newly procured solar farm is conveniently located near one of Meta’s existing data centers in Texas.
A deluge of partnerships between tech firms and nuclear startups was witnessed in late 2021. Google and Kairos revealed plans to deploy 500 megawatts of small modular nuclear reactors by 2030, while Amazon sealed a deal with X-Energy for 300 megawatts to be operational early in the 2030s.
Playing its part, Meta announced its search for nuclear power developers to provide 1 to 4 gigawatts of power by the early 2030s. However, despite the hype for nuclear power, renewable power capacities continue to expand quietly, providing immediate solutions for computing power needs. For instance, Google is supporting a $20 billion renewable deal with Intersect Power and TPG Rise, while Microsoft partners with Acadia Infrastructure Capital on a $9 billion arrangement.
The rate of deployment remains a significant hurdle for nuclear startups. Meta’s most recent solar farm is anticipated to be operational by 2025, outpacing the transition to nuclear power.
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