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Meta wants to power AI data centers with solar energy from space
Key Points
Meta has signed a deal with startup Overview Energy for up to one gigawatt of space-based solar power to feed the massive energy demands of its AI data centers.
Satellites would collect sunlight in orbit and beam it back to Earth as uninterrupted power, regardless of weather or time of day.
The technology is still hypothetical, with commercial deliveries not expected until 2030 at the earliest. In the meantime, Meta continues to invest heavily in natural gas and nuclear power.
Meta has signed a deal with startup Overview Energy for up to 1 gigawatt of space-based solar power. The only catch: the technology doesn't exist yet.
Meta Platforms has signed a deal with startup Overview Energy for up to 1 gigawatt of solar power collected in space and beamed back to Earth. The company plans to use this energy to feed the massive power demands of its AI data centers. For context, one gigawatt is roughly the output of a single nuclear reactor.
Overview Energy, based in northern Virginia, wants to capture sunlight with satellites in low Earth orbit, convert it into electricity, and beam it down to receivers on the ground. The big advantage over conventional solar farms: in orbit, the sun never sets, and weather, time of day, and seasons don't matter. Nat Sahlstrom, Meta's head of energy and sustainability, says the deal gives Meta access to clean and "uninterrupted energy."
The technology is still entirely hypothetical
There's a significant caveat: Overview Energy's technology doesn't actually exist yet. The startup is still developing and testing its components, with a first orbital demonstration planned for 2028. Commercial power deliveries aren't expected to begin until 2030. Meta declined to share the financial terms of the deal but gets priority access to Overview Energy's future capacity in return.
The deal is part of a massive spending push that has Meta pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into energy, infrastructure, and computing capacity for its AI ambitions. So far, the company has leaned mostly on natural gas - it recently backed the construction of ten new gas-fired power plants to supply its largest AI data center campus in rural Louisiana. Meta has also invested billions in nuclear power, including experimental small modular reactors. Space-based solar would add another option to Meta's energy mix, assuming Overview Energy can actually deliver on its roadmap.
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