Meta seeks to power data centers with energy beamed from space

Meta Platforms Inc. has announced a significant agreement with startup Overview Energy to secure up to 1 gigawatt of space-based solar energy, aiming to power its burgeoning artificial intelligence data centers. The deal, which grants Meta preferential access to Overview Energy's future capacity, anticipates commercial power delivery by 2030. This strategic move highlights Meta's pursuit of clean, "uninterrupted energy" to address its rapidly increasing electricity consumption, a demand currently met largely by natural gas, including support for 10 new gas-fired plants at its major AI data center campus in rural Louisiana. Overview Energy, based in northern Virginia, is developing technology to collect sunlight in orbiting satellites and beam it back to Earth's grid, with an initial orbital demonstration planned for 2028. Meta's Vice President of Energy and Sustainability, Nat Sahlstrom, emphasized the company's hope that this novel approach will circumvent the intermittency issues of terrestrial solar power. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.