The artificial intelligence boom is forcing Big Tech to rethink its clean-energy commitments. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is the latest example.
The company behind Facebook is backing away from a major renewable energy pledge as it helps finance natural gas plants to power its expanding data center footprint.
Data Center Growth
Meta joined the RE100 renewable energy initiative back in 2016 with a goal of reaching 100% renewable electricity for the company. Ten years later, the company and initiative have parted ways as Meta aggressively spends and partners with natural gas companies to power its data centers.
It turns out powering data centers and AI ambitions requires countless amounts of power. To get that power, Meta has helped fund construction on new natural gas power plants.
This includes a gas power plant in Ohio and 10 natural gas power plants in Louisiana.
With the funding of natural gas power plants, Meta has quietly parted ways with RE100. A Meta spokesperson confirmed the move to TechCrunch, a move that was first reported by Recharge.
News of the exit from RE100 comes after Meta met its 100% renewable energy goals in 2021, a year after its original target date of 2020.
Meta told TechCrunch it remains committed to matching its data center usage with "100% clean and renewable energy."
While Meta hasn’t abandoned its renewable energy initiatives, the exit from RE100 likely means the company won’t be able to be 100% compliant with the rules of the group going forward.
Other Tech Companies
According to TechCrunch, other technology giants that may be funding data centers are still part of the initiative’s membership. That list includes Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft.
While the RE100 requires members to source 100% renewable electricity and report progress toward that goal, the initiative does not prohibit companies from using fossil fuels elsewhere in their operations.
Still, there’s growing tension across the technology industry: companies that spent years building clean energy strategies are now rethinking their promises.
Years ago, if you heard that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was buying a gas turbine company, you probably wouldn’t have believed it. But with growing power needs, Musk has ditched his pure clean energy initiatives, doing just that.
Musk and SpaceX spent $1 billion to acquire APR Energy, a gas turbine company, to help power the company’s future energy needs.
The power crunch fueling the next stages of AI growth is pushing even clean-energy champions like Musk toward the fastest available source — in his case, gas.
Photo: Shutterstock
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