Meta signed three deals this week to acquire nearly 1 gigawatt of solar power as it races to boost its lofty AI ambitions.
The trio of deals brings Meta’s total solar purchases to more than 3 gigawatts of capacity this year. Solar power is cheap and quick to build, and as a result, it has become a go-to power source for technology companies as their data center fleets multiply in size.
Meta yesterday announced two agreements in Louisiana that allow it to purchase the environmental attributes of a combined total of 385 megawatts of electricity. Both projects are expected to be completed within two years.
They follow on the heels of a broader deal announced Monday in which Meta bought 600 megawatts of a massive solar farm near Lubbock, Texas. The project will also begin commercial operations in 2027.
While the Texas power plant will not connect directly to the Meta data centers, it will feed into the local grid, offsetting the use of the facilities.
However, the Louisiana agreements involve the purchase of certificates that allow Meta to offset its carbon-intensive energy sources.
These environmental attributes certificates (EACs), sometimes called renewable energy certificates, have been criticized by experts for hiding the true carbon footprint of tech companies’ operations, which have skyrocketed as AI has boosted electricity use.
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EACs were introduced years ago when renewables were expensive compared to fossil fuel generators. They allowed anyone to buy the electricity, but also gave companies the option to pay more to offset their own emissions and offset the higher costs of renewable energy. They helped encourage developers to build more renewable projects.
But the cost of new solar and wind power has fallen dramatically since then, and renewables have undercut new fossil energy and sometimes existing coal and natural gas power plants. EACs don’t offer the same incentive as before, and experts wonder how much additional renewable energy they stimulate.
If companies really want to offset their new energy use from AI, they should encourage developers to build new renewable capacity, experts argue.
