Meta Platforms is seeking to harness solar power collected in space to supply electricity for its artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, addressing its seemingly insatiable energy demands through an innovative approach.
According to Zhitong Finance APP, $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ Meta is seeking to harness solar energy collected in space to power its artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, addressing its seemingly insatiable demand for electricity in a novel way. Meta announced on Monday that it has reached an agreement with the startup Overview Energy to secure up to 1 gigawatt of space-based solar power. One gigawatt is roughly equivalent to the power generation capacity of a nuclear reactor.
Meta declined to disclose the financial terms of the agreement. Under the deal, Meta will have priority access to Overview Energy’s future power generation capacity. Both parties stated that commercial power supply is expected to be achieved by 2030. In a statement, Nat Sahlstrom, Meta’s Vice President of Energy and Sustainability, said the company hopes Overview Energy can provide it with clean and 'uninterrupted energy.'
Overview Energy plans to collect sunlight via satellites orbiting Earth and convert it into electricity to support grid operations. The concept of space-based power stations envisioned by the company—transmitting energy back to Earth—remains theoretical at this stage. The startup is still developing and testing its underlying technology and plans to conduct its first orbital demonstration in 2028.
Overview Energy is betting on the idea that 'the sun never sets in space.' If its efforts to continuously collect energy and transmit it back to ground-based receiving stations succeed, it will offer a clean energy solution that overcomes some limitations of terrestrial solar panels, whose efficiency is often affected by weather, day-night cycles, and seasonal changes.
For Meta, this initiative is part of its massive AI investment spree. The company is investing hundreds of billions of dollars to ensure it secures the energy, infrastructure, and computing power necessary to support its AI ambitions. To date, Meta's AI endeavors have largely relied on natural gas, which the company considers more stable and reliable compared to some cleaner forms of energy. Meta is currently constructing its largest AI data center campus in a rural area of Louisiana, USA, and supporting the development of 10 new gas-fired power plants to serve the facility.
With the exponential growth in AI-driven computing demands in recent years, the 'three high' pain points of ground-based computing centers have long been an industry consensus: large data centers consume as much electricity annually as a medium-sized city, cooling costs account for 30% of total operating expenses, and coverage blind spots in remote areas, oceans, and airspace are difficult to overcome. However, the space environment offers a natural solution—solar energy utilization efficiency without atmospheric interference is over 30% higher than on Earth, vacuum conditions enable zero-cost cooling, and low-orbit satellite networks can achieve millisecond-level global coverage. At this stage, however, satellite launch and construction costs remain high, and no actual projects have yet been implemented.
Notably, Meta is not the only company attempting to meet the energy demands of data centers through space-based solutions. Figures like Musk and Bezos have previously discussed deploying computing facilities directly into orbit.
Musk has already announced plans to build the chip project TeaFab, which aims to achieve an annual production capacity of 1 terawatt (TW) of AI computing power, with operations slated to begin in 2027. Eighty percent of the chips produced will be used for space-based computing centers. Earlier this year, SpaceX, Musk’s commercial aerospace giant, submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), planning to deploy up to 1 million satellites to create the world’s first 'orbital data center network,' providing AI models with space-based computing power.
Additionally, it was reported that Blue Origin, Bezos’ space exploration enterprise, officially announced last month its entry into the field of space-based AI infrastructure. According to reports, Blue Origin submitted an official application to the FCC on March 19, seeking regulatory approval for its ambitious satellite network deployment plan, which involves placing nearly 52,000 specialized satellites into Earth’s orbit. Unlike traditional communication or navigation satellites, this massive satellite constellation is specifically designed to handle complex AI computing tasks, equipped with advanced processing chips to perform high-intensity AI data computations directly in space.
Editor/Jayden