Meta will power its US data centers with petrothermal energy

Meta✴ intends to supply its American data centers with geothermal (petrothermal) energy. According to Datacenter Dynamics, the company announced a deal with startup Sage Geosystems to use the latter’s technologies to provide data centers with electricity.

Sage Geosystems will use the Geopressured Geothermal System (GGS) to deliver green energy to the customer. The first phase of the project should start operating in 2027. Meta✴ expects to receive up to 150 MW of base petrothermal power for its facilities. It has not yet been announced which data centers will be supplied with energy from “carbon-free” sources. However, Sage let it slip that we are talking about the area east of the Rocky Mountains.

Sage Geosystems called the project an excellent example of how the public and private sectors can collaborate on the clean energy transition and thanked the Department of Energy (DOE) for supporting the commercialization of innovative solutions. According to the company, geothermal energy is mainly used in the states of Nevada, Utah and California. As for Meta✴, the company has secured contracts to supply more than 12 GW of renewable electricity worldwide, becoming one of the largest corporate buyers of renewable energy in the world.

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Sage says petrothermal systems are a more common and affordable source of energy than hydrothermal wells. Petrothermal systems pump water in a closed loop between the Earth’s surface and underground hot rocks. You can drill your own wells or repurpose some “dry” oil wells. Sage is also working on long-term energy storage technologies. Last year, a small pilot project was able to provide 200 kW for more than 18 hours and 1 MW for 30 minutes.

Texas-based Sage Geosystems was founded in 2020 by former Shell employees. The company raised $17 million in a Series A funding round. The funds will be used to build the company’s first commercial GGS project with a capacity of 3 MW in Texas, near San Antonio. The geothermal power plant should be operational before the end of 2024. Sage previously signed a deal with the US Army to power military installations in New Mexico and Texas. It is also exploring the possibility of using geothermal energy for the benefit of the US Air Force base in Houston (Texas).

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Google previously entered into a contract with Fervo Energy and NV Energy to purchase more than 100 MW of geothermal energy in Nevada. Microsoft has a clean power purchase agreement (PPA) with Contact Energy in New Zealand, and it is also building a geothermal campus in Kenya with G42.

In Indonesia, Star Energy is in discussions with data center operators to build facilities close to geothermal power plants, and PDG has also signed a “geothermal” contract for its data centers in Indonesia. In the Philippines, Converge entered into a similar energy supply agreement with a local power utility. In California, the startup CalEthos intends to build a large campus with energy supply from similar sources. Finally, Italian startup Geoveda Srl intends to build a small geothermal powered data center in Tuscany.