Meta Signs Overview Energy Deal To Beam Space Solar Power For Data Centers At Night

Meta has signed an agreement with the startup Overview Energy that could allow “a thousand satellites” to beam infrared light to solar farms that power Meta data centers at night.

“Meta on Monday said it had agreed to what it called a “first of its kind” deal harnessing solar energy to power AI data centers”

AI Business

TechCrunch says the deal is aimed at the “race to secure electricity for AI models,” and it reports that Meta’s data centers used “more than 18,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity” in 2024.

AI Business

TechCrunch adds that Meta has committed to building “30 gigawatts of renewable power sources,” with a focus on “industrial-scale solar power plants,” while Overview Energy’s approach is to collect solar power in space and convert it to near-infrared light for terrestrial solar farms.

The agreement is described as a “first capacity reservation agreement” in TechCrunch, with Meta saying it will receive “up to 1 gigawatt of power” from Overview’s spacecraft.

TechCrunch also reports that Overview expects to fly “1,000 spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit,” with each spacecraft providing power from space for “more than 10 years,” and that the initial deployment would reach “from the West Coast of the United States across to Western Europe.”

TechCrunch adds that Overview Energy’s CEO Marc Berte tells TechCrunch that “you’ll be able to stare right into his satellite’s beam with no ill effects,” and the plan is to begin launching satellites that fulfill the commitment in 2030.

Across the coverage, Overview Energy’s system is presented as a way to extend solar generation beyond daylight by beaming energy from orbit to existing terrestrial solar infrastructure.

TechCrunch describes spacecraft that “collect plentiful solar power in space,” convert it to “near-infrared light,” and beam it at sufficiently large solar farms “on the order of hundreds of megawatts.”

GovTech

GovTech frames the same concept as satellites positioned “22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface” that collect sunlight continuously and transmit it down “in the form of low-intensity near-infrared light.”

AI Business says the partners plan to launch “a thousand satellites into space,” which would “direct infrared light to existing solar farms on Earth and convert it into electricity for data centers worldwide.”

Mobile World Live similarly says the satellites sit in “geosynchronous orbit roughly 22,000 miles above the Earth’s equator,” where sunlight is constant, and it quotes Meta’s rationale that solar facilities on Earth “only generate electricity when the sun is shining, leaving them idle for significant parts of the day.”

PV Tech adds a specific claim about the beam, saying Overview’s beam is “invisible, less intense than sunlight and passively safe for humans, animals, and aircraft.”

The sources lay out a multi-year schedule that begins with demonstrations and moves toward commercial delivery by the end of the decade.

“It’s no secret that data centers use a lot of energy, so the more green sources companies can tap into, the better”

GovTech

TechCrunch says Overview is planning to launch a satellite to low Earth orbit in “January 2028” to perform its first power transmission from space, and it adds that Berte expects to begin launching the satellites that fulfill Meta’s commitment in “2030.”

GovTech similarly says Overview is planning a demonstration in “January 2028” and that commercial deployment isn’t expected until “2030,” while it describes the capacity reservation agreement as “up to one gigawatt of power.”

AI Business and SpaceNews both describe the agreement as “up to one gigawatt” and tie it to an in-space demo in “2028” and commercial service “as soon as 2030.”

Mobile World Live says Meta expects it will have access to the energy “by the end of the decade,” and it describes the satellites as enabling solar farms to “keep producing electricity around the clock.”

Mobile World Live also reports that Meta has a partnership with Noon Energy to deploy up to “1GWh of “long-duration” energy storage,” and it says an initial “2.5GWh pilot demonstration project” is expected to be completed “also in 2028.”

The deal is accompanied by statements from Meta and Overview executives, and the coverage also includes commentary from industry figures and references to other energy strategies.

TechCrunch quotes Nat Sahlstrom, Meta’s “vice president of energy and sustainability,” saying, “Space solar technology represents a transformative step forward by leveraging existing terrestrial infrastructure to deliver new, uninterrupted energy from orbit.”

Payload Space

TechCrunch also includes Marc Berte’s perspective, quoting him as saying, “There’s a big difference between being in any one energy market, and being in all of the energy markets,” and it reports Berte’s claim that “you’ll be able to stare right into his satellite’s beam with no ill effects.”

SpaceNews quotes Sahlstrom again, tying the agreement to Meta’s effort to “diversify its power sources to meet the growing demands of data centers supporting artificial intelligence applications.”

SpaceNews also quotes Berte: “Our approach to space solar energy enables hyperscalers and technology providers to secure clean power with reliable siting, and speed to power. Together with Meta, we’re looking beyond traditional constraints on where and when power can be delivered to meet the growing demand for electricity.”

SpaceNews includes a named outside voice, Micah Walter-Range of Caelus Partners, who told SpaceNews, “This approach makes more sense to me: beaming the power to existing solar facilities on the ground, so they can generate electricity even after the sun goes down,” and it adds that he said, “Seems easier than putting the data centers in space.”

Several sources place Meta’s space-solar move within a wider scramble by AI companies to secure electricity and within a debate about how to meet grid and environmental constraints.

“Meta announced an agreement today to secure up to 1 GW of power capacity through Overview Energy’s planned solar power-beaming satellite system”

Payload Space

SpaceNews says Meta previously signed agreements with “several companies for geothermal and nuclear power” and it separately announced “a deal to purchase 100 gigawatt-hours of energy storage from a battery startup, Noon Energy,” describing these as part of “a scramble by AI companies to secure power for their data centers.”

PV Tech

SpaceNews also reports that “some cases” have led to “public backlash regarding the environmental impacts of those centers and increased energy costs,” and it points to other proposals that would put data centers in orbit.

It notes that “several companies have filed applications with the Federal Communications Commission” to deploy “massive constellations of satellites” serving as “orbital data centers,” and it quotes SpaceX’s January filing seeking permission to deploy “up to 1 million satellites.”

In March, SpaceNews says Blue Origin filed plans for “up to 51,600 orbital data center satellites,” citing “always-on solar energy,” and it adds that Starcloud raised “$170 million” on March 30 after filing an FCC application for “up to 88,000 satellites.”

PV Tech also introduces a different kind of risk by noting that satellite proliferation has reportedly caused problems for astronomers, including a study published in Nature led by NASA scientists that found that “in the next decade, the proliferation of satellites could impact 96% of the images taken at major space observation centres.”