Is Meta America’s Greenest Company?
There has been a persistent concern that electricity-hungry AI data centers would require such a high level of electricity that utilities would need to revert to the use of fossil fuels. There are already discussions about this, including those related to coal plants. Meta has reached an agreement with Constellation Energy to use one of its nuclear plants for the next decade.
AI energy use has risen at such a rapid pace that former Google CEO Eric Schmidt believes that it could use 99% of US electricity within five years. This represents two challenges. The first is that the US grid cannot deliver electricity at that level. The other is that renewables are not growing fast enough to provide the additional supply of electricity. This is particularly true of the growth pace of solar and wind.
Alternative Energy
One alternative is nuclear energy, which has not been a growing part of the U.S. electricity supply for years. One solution may be small modular reactors, which can be built off-site and assembled at the location where the energy is needed. The testing and approval of these could take several years.
Meta’s plan will help solve the green energy problem, according to The Wall Street Journal. “Meta Platforms green up pointing triangle is turning to nuclear power for the massive amounts of electricity it needs to fuel its artificial-intelligence ambitions. The tech giant will buy the power generation of a nuclear plant in Illinois for 20 years under a deal with Constellation Energy.” Neither company released the financial agreement, but experts say the Meta investment will be well into the billions of dollars. Earlier this year, Meta said it would invest at least $60 billion into its AI operations.
Meta’s model may quickly become the template for other companies that need electricity at a similar level. This would include Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI.
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