Meta bought 1 GW of solar this week

Meta signed three offers this week to obtain practically 1 gigawatt of solar energy because it races to energy its lofty AI ambitions.

The trio of agreements brings Meta’s whole photo voltaic purchases to over 3 gigawatts of capability this yr. Photo voltaic is affordable and fast to construct, and consequently, it has grow to be a go-to power source for tech companies as their knowledge heart fleets multiply in dimension.

Meta yesterday introduced two agreements in Louisiana that see it shopping for the environmental attributes of a mixed 385 megawatts of electrical energy. Each tasks are anticipated to be accomplished two years from now.

They observe on the heels of a bigger deal introduced Monday wherein Meta purchased 600 megawatts from a large photo voltaic farm close to Lubbock, Texas. The mission may also begin business operations in 2027.

Whereas the Texas energy plant gained’t join on to Meta knowledge facilities, it is going to feed into the native grid, offsetting use by the amenities.

The Louisiana offers, although, contain buying of certificates that permit Meta to offset its carbon-intensive sources of energy. 

Such environmental attribute certificates (EACs), generally referred to as renewable power certificates, have been criticized by experts for obscuring the true carbon footprint of tech corporations’ operations, which have ballooned as AI has pushed up electrical energy use.

EACs have been launched years in the past when renewables have been pricey relative to fossil gasoline turbines. They let anybody purchase the electrical energy, but in addition gave corporations an choice to pay further to offset their very own emissions — and offset the upper prices of renewable energy. They helped encourage builders to construct extra renewable tasks.

However the price of new photo voltaic and wind has dropped dramatically since then, with renewables undercutting new fossil energy and generally present coal and pure fuel energy vegetation. EACs don’t present the identical incentive as earlier than, and consultants query how a lot extra renewable energy they stimulate. 

If corporations actually wish to offset their new power use from AI, they need to be encouraging builders to construct new renewable capability, consultants argue.