Meta’s geothermal ambitions are growing with a new deal to support projects in New Mexico.
Today, it announced a deal with XGS Energy, a company developing next-generation geothermal technologies that will enable the use of this energy source in places where it was previously unavailable. The plan is to add 150 megawatts of carbon-free electricity to the grid that Meta’s data center in the region is connected to.
Meta desperately needs more power for AI. Power systems are struggling to meet the growing demand for data centers. And those needs are driving geothermal startups like XGS Energy.
“Advancements in AI require constant energy to support infrastructure development,” said Urvi Parekh, Meta’s global head of energy, in a press release. “With next-generation geothermal technologies like XGS ready to scale, geothermal energy could become a major player in supporting the development of technologies like AI, as well as the development of domestic data centers.”
Geothermal power plants generate electricity by harnessing the Earth’s heat; typically by drawing hot fluids or steam from natural reservoirs to spin turbines. However, this tactic is limited by natural geography, and the U.S. gets about half a percent of its electricity from geothermal sources.
Startups including XGS are trying to change that by making geothermal energy more accessible. Last year, Meta inked a separate 150 MW deal with Sage Geosystems to develop new geothermal power plants. Sage is developing technology to extract energy from hot, dry rock by drilling and pumping water underground, essentially creating artificial reservoirs. Google has its own partnership with another startup called Fervo, which is developing similar technology.
XGS Energy is also looking to extract geothermal energy from dry rock. The company is trying to differentiate itself by using closed-loop water reuse, which prevents water from getting trapped in cracks in the rock. The water it uses to harness the heat from the ground circulates inside a steel casing. Water conservation is especially important in drought-prone New Mexico, where Meta is expanding its Los Lunas data center.
Meta declined to say how much it is spending on the deal with XGS Energy. The initiative will be implemented in two phases, with the goal of being operational by 2030.
Meta committed to net zero emissions by the end of the decade back in 2020. But energy-dependent data centers could push those goals even further if they can’t run on clean energy. Last week, Meta announced plans to generate more carbon-free electricity by helping to revive an aging nuclear reactor. But a utility in Louisiana has proposed building three new gas-fired power plants to power Meta’s new giant data center. Like other tech giants, Meta, in its quest to succeed in artificial intelligence, has set itself the goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet, and its climate goals have been growing ever since.
