Meta inks deal for solar power at night, beamed from space
TechCrunch • • business
Key Points:
- Meta has partnered with startup Overview Energy to potentially deploy up to 1,000 satellites that beam infrared light to solar farms, enabling nighttime power generation for data centers.
- Meta's data centers consumed over 18,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity in 2024, prompting the company to commit to building 30 gigawatts of renewable energy, primarily through industrial-scale solar plants.
- Overview Energy's technology converts solar power collected in space into near-infrared light beamed to large terrestrial solar farms, avoiding challenges associated with high-power laser or microwave transmission.
- The company plans to launch its first low Earth orbit satellite in January 2028 and aims to begin satellite deployments fulfilling Meta's 1-gigawatt capacity reservation by 2030, with satellites expected to operate for over a decade.
- Overview's satellite fleet will initially cover about one-third of the planet, providing supplemental power from space during nighttime hours to improve solar farm efficiency and reduce fossil fuel reliance.
