Meta is contracting with a little-known next-generation geothermal startup, XGS Power, to counteract emissions from a knowledge middle campus in New Mexico that’s being expanded to accommodate synthetic intelligence.
Beneath the deal introduced June 12, Meta will help XGS’s improvement of a two-phased, 150-megawatt set up that can start feeding electrical energy to the native grid by 2030.
This isn’t an influence buy settlement, no less than not but. It’s a part of a broad portfolio of 13 renewable electrical energy and power storage initiatives that Meta is supporting by a particular service contract with PNM, the biggest electrical energy supplier in New Mexico. The undertaking builders search to make use of a state geothermal tax credit score accredited in 2024.
XGS, based in 2008, has raised near $60 million to develop a geothermal manufacturing methodology differentiated by use of virtually no water and its applicability in quite a lot of geological situations. Meta is its first publicly declared buyer.
Enhanced geothermal applied sciences work by fracturing sizzling rock and circulating water to generate electrical energy. Superior geothermal techniques use a closed-loop design that doesn’t inject the fluid into the rock and are sometimes sited at end-of-life oil and fuel wells. XGS is taken into account a hybrid between these two approaches.
There’s just one geothermal set up in New Mexico, however state-sponsored analysis suggests there may very well be 160 gigawatts of geothermal capability out there for improvement. “New Mexico isn’t solely the second largest oil and fuel producer within the U.S., but in addition one of many nation’s main sources of unpolluted power,” stated New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham. Colorado, North Dakota and California additionally help state-level initiatives.
That is Meta’s second geothermal partnership. It introduced a relationship with Sage Geosystems in August 2024 with the objective of bringing 150 megawatts of electrical energy on-line in an unspecified location east of the Rocky Mountains by 2027.
Google and Microsoft help geothermal, too
Geothermal energy accounts for lower than 1 p.c of the present U.S. electrical energy combine, however anticipated power demand for knowledge facilities and bipartisan coverage help for improvement is spurring company curiosity.
Startups engaged on enhanced or superior geothermal techniques have raised greater than $1.3 billion from a spread of traders together with oil majors equivalent to Chevron and Baker Hughes, in keeping with analysis agency Wooden Mackenzie.
Wooden Mackenzie estimates the Nice Basin area together with Nevada, Utah and elements of California, Oregon and Wyoming might help no less than 135 gigawatts of capability, or roughly 10 p.c of the U.S. energy provide.
Fervo Power, an enhanced geothermal firm that has inked a high-profile cope with Google for a 118 megawatt undertaking in Nevada, disclosed a further $206 million in undertaking financing June 11 that can assist advance its Cape Station undertaking in Utah, the primary section of which is slated to change into operational in 2026.
Microsoft’s greatest guess on geothermal for knowledge facilities, to date, is exterior the U.S. in Kenya, the place it’s investing $1 billion in an AI facility with G42, a improvement firm from Dubai.
Optimistic undertaking pipeline
Knowledge facilities are a quickly rising enterprise within the U.S., and company energy buy agreements shall be crucial for securing extra initiatives, in keeping with Wooden Mackenzie evaluation. Geothermal is among the uncommon renewables receiving bipartisan help: As of this writing, it appeared federal tax credit can be spared within the funds winding its approach by the U.S. Senate.
Even with out these credit, the levelized value of power from next-generation geothermal initiatives equivalent to Cape State is about $79 per megawatt-hour.
“Tax credit ought to function a catalyst, not a crutch,” stated Annick Adjei, senior analysis analyst with Wooden Mackenzie. “They assist construct a aggressive U.S. geothermal business with international management probably. Fortuitously, [enhanced geothermal] initiatives are more and more viable with out them, and continued innovation is predicted to drive prices down additional.”
