Why Meta is betting on long-duration storage and ‘space solar’

This is corporate energy news, not something that touches home upgrades directly, but it shows where big power demand and clean energy dollars are headed. Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, is racing to build AI data centers that need huge amounts of electricity fast. That rush is pushing it to sign new natural gas contracts even as it tries to hold onto its net-zero goals — its data centers saw electricity use rise 21 percent and related emissions rise 16 percent in 2024. A single new campus in Louisiana will draw 5 gigawatts of power from a mix of new gas plants, solar, and battery storage.

At the same time, Meta is pouring money into newer clean-power technology to make its existing wind and solar contracts more useful around the clock. It has a deal with Noon Energy for long-duration storage — fuel cells that can store and release power for several days when the sun or wind isn't producing — starting with a 25-megawatt project by 2028. It's also funding an early-stage company, Overview Energy, that wants to beam solar power collected in space down to ground-based solar farms, with a demonstration planned for 2028 and possible commercial service by 2030.

None of this changes what's available to homeowners today. But it's a sign that demand from data centers is reshaping how power gets generated and priced, and that some of tomorrow's grid technology, like long-duration storage, is being tested now by companies like Meta rather than at the neighborhood level.