Meta, XGS Sign Deal to Power Data Centers with Geothermal Energy – ESG Today

Fb, Instagram, and WhatsApp proprietor Meta introduced a brand new settlement with clear power firm XGS Vitality for the event of 150 MW of geothermal power in New Mexico to help Meta’s information middle operations within the state.

California-based XGS Vitality offers heat-harvesting know-how to allow entry to inexpensive and carbon-free geothermal power. The corporate’s answer drills a single directional nicely to entry rock with temperatures of 250 °C or increased, and pulls warmth into the nicely by a community of thermally conductive materials. The warmth can be utilized instantly, or transformed to electrical energy. Water is reused in a coaxial closed-loop system, which makes the system extra environmentally useful and deployable even the place water is scarce. Earlier this 12 months, the corporate raised $13 million in a financing spherical, with proceeds geared toward increasing its geothermal know-how and financing new tasks.

Based on XGS, the brand new geothermal power improvement will allow carbon-free energy manufacturing with zero working water use, which might be deployed to the PNM grid. By decoupling geothermal power manufacturing from constraints resembling water availability, the corporate added that its know-how permits “new frontiers” for geothermal power improvement, noting that its new venture is positioned to extend the entire geothermal electrical energy produced in New Mexico by an element of ten.

Josh Prueher, Chief Govt Officer at XGS Vitality, stated:

“We’re happy to help Meta’s formidable AI targets and speed up entry to new round the clock energy provides. Extra broadly, the state of New Mexico is a rising hub for information middle improvement. We’re desperate to feed clear, water-independent geothermal energy into the New Mexico market at a scale uniquely doable with XGS know-how.”

Meta has set a goal to achieve net-zero emissions throughout its worth chain by 2030. The corporate achieved its objective to fulfill 100% of its operational power wants with renewable sources in 2020, and not too long ago stated that it anticipates including 9.8 GW of renewable power to native grids within the U.S. by the top of 2025.

The brand new settlement will begin with an preliminary smaller section, adopted by a second bigger section, that are each projected to be operational by 2030.

Urvi Parekh, World Head of Vitality at Meta, stated:

“Advances in AI require continued power to help infrastructure improvement. With next-generation geothermal applied sciences like XGS prepared for scale, geothermal could be a main participant in supporting the development of applied sciences like AI in addition to home information middle improvement. We’re excited to companion with XGS to unlock a brand new class of power provide for our operations in New Mexico.”