Meta turns to next-generation geothermal to power increasingly voracious data centers

Concerns about AI’s environmental impact have prompted big tech companies to explore exotic options for reducing emissions. Now, Meta plans to try powering its data centers with geothermal energy.

Today’s largest AI models use huge amounts of electricity. That significantly increases the energy bills for the tech companies building them and makes it harder for the companies to keep the ambitious promises they’ve made to reduce carbon emissions.

As a result, these companies are looking for new sources of renewable energy to meet demand without increasing their carbon footprint. Solar and wind are inevitably the best choices, but given the already fierce competition for access to renewable energy, some tech giants are also turning to new technologies.

That’s why Meta recently announced a new partnership with Sage Geosystems. The company’s technology generates carbon-free energy by pumping water deep into hot underground rock formations. Under the deal, the startup will provide up to 150 megawatts of geothermal energy to help power Meta’s data centers.

“Sage’s technology represents a significant advancement in the clean energy sector, demonstrating the potential of geothermal energy to be used virtually anywhere,” Meta said in a press release announcing the deal.

“We are excited to be working with Sage on a first-of-its-kind project to explore the use of new, advanced geothermal energy in parts of the country where it has not been possible before.”

Geothermal energy is an attractive option for data center operators because, unlike other renewable sources such as solar and wind, it is not intermittent. However, conventional power plants require access to underground reservoirs of hot water, which are found only in a few areas of the world with high levels of volcanic activity.

So-called enhanced geothermal technology removes this limitation, eliminating the need for a natural reservoir. The approach, based on “fracking” technology developed by the oil and gas industry, involves pumping water at high pressure down into hot, dry rock to create fractures that can be filled with water. The heated water is then extracted, turned into steam and used to drive a turbine to generate electricity.

This greatly expands the number of locations where a geothermal power plant could be built. The technology is still in its infancy, but Sage has already field-tested the approach at an abandoned gas well in Texas, and said Edge that he expects this approach can be scaled up quickly because it uses “off-the-shelf” technologies from the oil and gas industry.

It’s unclear how quickly the technology will affect Meta’s power bill, though. The project’s initial 8-megawatt first phase isn’t expected to be up and running until 2027. After that, it will take several more years to reach its full 150-megawatt capacity. Crucially, the companies have yet to sign a formal power purchase agreement, Edge notes.

The partnership will still give a boost to the burgeoning industry, and Meta isn’t the only big tech player interested. Last year, Google announced that some of its Nevada data centers were being powered by an upgraded geothermal plant built by a startup called Fervo.

Geothermal could face some competition, though. Big tech companies are increasingly turning to nuclear power as a potential source of reliable, carbon-free energy. Microsoft is particularly interested in developing small modular reactors to help run its data centers.

And improved geothermal energy still has a long way to go. A recent Energy Department report estimated that it would take about $20 billion to $25 billion in investment to prove the technology and create a self-sustaining industry. That’s feasible by 2030, the report said, but it will require further cost reductions and several large-scale demonstrations to build confidence.

Given the tech industry’s ever-increasing energy demands coupled with its commitment to reducing emissions, these companies may prove to be the most promising path to making that goal a reality.

Image Source: Sage Geosystems