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 12 months. Photo voltaic is reasonable and fast to construct, and because of this, it has grow to be a go-to energy supply for tech firms as their knowledge middle 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 comply with on the heels of a bigger deal introduced Monday by which Meta purchased 600 megawatts from a large photo voltaic farm close to Lubbock, Texas. The mission may even begin business operations in 2027.
Whereas the Texas energy plant received’t join on to Meta knowledge facilities, it would feed into the native grid, offsetting use by the services.
The Louisiana offers, although, contain buying of certificates that enable Meta to offset its carbon-intensive sources of energy.
Such environmental attribute certificates (EACs), generally known as renewable vitality certificates, have been criticized by consultants for obscuring the true carbon footprint of tech firms’ operations, which have ballooned as AI has pushed up electrical energy use.
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EACs had been launched years in the past when renewables had been expensive relative to fossil gas mills. They let anybody purchase the electrical energy, but additionally gave firms 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 current 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 firms actually need to offset their new vitality use from AI, they need to be encouraging builders to construct new renewable capability, consultants argue.
