Meta bought 1 GW of solar this week

Meta signed 3 deals this week to procure astir 1 gigawatt of star powerfulness arsenic it races to powerfulness its lofty AI ambitions.

The trio of agreements brings Meta’s full star purchases to implicit 3 gigawatts of capableness this year. Solar is inexpensive and speedy to build, and arsenic a result, it has go a go-to powerfulness root for tech companies arsenic their information halfway fleets multiply successful size.

Meta yesterday announced 2 agreements successful Louisiana that spot it buying the biology attributes of a combined 385 megawatts of electricity. Both projects are expected to beryllium completed 2 years from now.

They travel connected the heels of a larger woody announced Monday successful which Meta bought 600 megawatts from a monolithic star workplace adjacent Lubbock, Texas. The task volition besides commencement commercialized operations successful 2027.

While the Texas powerfulness works won’t link straight to Meta information centers, it volition provender into the section grid, offsetting usage by the facilities.

The Louisiana deals, though, impact purchasing of certificates that let Meta to offset its carbon-intensive sources of power. 

Such biology property certificates (EACs), sometimes called renewable vigor certificates, person been criticized by experts for obscuring the existent c footprint of tech companies’ operations, which person ballooned arsenic AI has driven up energy use.

EACs were introduced years agone erstwhile renewables were costly comparative to fossil substance generators. They fto anyone bargain the electricity, but besides gave companies an enactment to wage other to offset their ain emissions — and offset the higher costs of renewable power. They helped promote developers to physique much renewable projects.

But the outgo of caller star and upwind has dropped dramatically since then, with renewables undercutting caller fossil powerfulness and sometimes existing ember and earthy state powerfulness plants. EACs don’t supply the aforesaid inducement arsenic before, and experts question however overmuch further renewable powerfulness they stimulate. 

If companies genuinely privation to offset their caller vigor usage from AI, they should beryllium encouraging developers to physique caller renewable capacity, experts argue.