Better energy balance

Meta concludes contracts with solar power provider

Like other internet companies, Meta's energy requirements are growing enormously as artificial intelligence applications continue to develop.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

Meta has signed contracts with a renewable energy provider for a capacity of 760 megawatts of solar power. As the internet group and the company Invenergy announced on Thursday, the contracts relate to solar plants in four US states that are scheduled to go into operation between 2024 and 2027.

In total, Meta now has contracts with Invenergy for a capacity of one gigawatt of electricity. Like other internet companies, Meta's energy requirements are growing enormously as artificial intelligence applications continue to develop. The California-based company is pursuing the goal of a climate-neutral energy balance. This involves feeding electricity from renewable energy sources into the local power grids so that the company receives credits for clean energy and thus improves its energy balance.

With the AI boom and the associated hunger for energy in data centers, US Internet companies have also been increasingly relying on nuclear energy for some time now, the use of which emits few greenhouse gases. On Tuesday, Meta announced its intention to obtain offers from nuclear power providers for between one and four gigawatts of power to be used from the beginning of the next decade.

Microsoft announced in September that it would resume using electricity from the currently decommissioned reactor 1 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania from 2028. The nuclear power plant was the scene of the most serious nuclear accident in US history in 1979, when a partial meltdown occurred in reactor 2. Around 140,000 people fled the area or were evacuated.