‘The potential to make existing infrastructure produce more output is what makes space solar worth investing in now’: Meta wants to power its future data centers with solar energy beamed from space — meaning solar plants can operate even at night-time
- Meta bets on space solar with Overview Energy for nonstop data center power
- Noon Energy joins Meta’s push for ultra-long duration grid storage systems
- Meta and Overview Energy target 2028 orbital energy demonstration milestone launch
Meta has announced a partnership with Overview Energy to bring space-based solar power to its data centers, allowing solar farms to generate electricity around the clock.
Today’s solar facilities only produce power when the sun is shining, leaving them idle for large parts of each day.
Overview Energy’s satellites sit in geosynchronous orbit roughly 22,000 miles above Earth, where sunlight is constant. These satellites collect energy in space and beam it down to Earth-based solar facilities as low-intensity near-infrared light.
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How space solar power actually works on the ground
“The potential to make existing infrastructure produce more output is what makes space solar worth investing in now to help move this technology from concept to the grid,” Meta stated in a blog post.
Existing solar farms will receive the beamed energy and convert it into electricity the same way they handle direct sunlight.
This means facilities that currently sit idle at night can keep producing power around the clock without requiring additional land or grid infrastructure.
Because the technology builds on solar infrastructure already in place rather than requiring new facilities, it can come online faster at scale than traditional buildouts.
Meta has secured a capacity reservation for up to 1GW of this orbit-to-grid energy to support its data center operations.
Overview’s orbital demonstration is planned for 2028, marking the first time the system is scheduled to beam energy wirelessly from space to a solar farm on Earth.
In addition to space-based solar systems, Meta is also investing in long-duration storage because the grid needs storage that can carry clean energy through extended periods.
Meta has partnered with Noon Energy to deploy ultra-long-duration energy storage using modular, reversible solid oxide fuel cells and carbon-based storage.
This technology provides over 100 hours of energy storage, far beyond what today’s lithium-ion batteries can deliver.
Early technology, high stakes
Meta has contracted more than 30GW of clean and renewable energy to date, representing billions in capital investments.
The company is also one of the largest corporate purchasers of nuclear energy in American history, supporting 7.7GW with multiple providers.
These solar power and storage technologies are early, and that is exactly why Meta is supporting them now rather than waiting for maturity.
If Overview’s orbital demonstration succeeds, commercial delivery to the US grid could start as early as 2030.
However, beaming energy from space to Earth at a commercial scale has never been done before, and the efficiency of that transmission remains unproven.
The infrastructure required to receive and convert the beamed energy across hundreds of solar farms does not yet exist.
Noon Energy’s carbon-based storage technology also faces questions about cycle life, degradation, and manufacturing scale.
This means that Meta is placing large bets on unproven technologies because the payoff, if successful, would be transformative.
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Meta bets on space solar with Overview Energy for nonstop data center power Noon Energy joins Meta’s push for ultra-long duration grid storage systems Meta and Overview Energy target 2028 orbital energy demonstration milestone launch Meta has announced a partnership with Overview Energy to bring space-based solar power to its…
