Meta is withdrawing from a major clean energy agreement as its natural gas production accelerates

Over the past year, Meta has financed the construction of at least a dozen natural gas power plants, including one project that alone will burn enough natural gas to generate as much electricity as the entire state of South Dakota.

Meta is now no longer part of RE100, a corporate renewable energy initiative, after a decade of membership, the company confirmed to TechCrunch today. The breakup was mutual, according to a Meta spokesperson.

The exit caps months of Meta expanding its bet on fossil fuels to power its AI data centers, and begs the obvious question: What does “clean energy” actually mean for a company that continues to build gas plants while still calling itself renewable?

RE100 is a project of The Climate Group, a UK-based non-profit co-founded by former Prime Minister Tony Blair. The initiative provides political and technical support to companies seeking to transition to 100% renewable energy. Meta rivals Apple, Google and Microsoft remain among the group’s 444 members. Recharge News was the first to report Meta’s departure.

While Meta did not comment on the reasons behind the departure — and the climate group did not respond to TechCrunch’s inquiry — the nonprofit recently updated its guidelines for companies, mandating stricter reporting on progress toward renewable energy goals. Previously, Meta told RE100 that it would “run its operations entirely on renewable electricity by 2020.”

Like many technology companies, Meta’s embrace of artificial intelligence has led it to secure large amounts of power for its data centers, and while the company continues to purchase renewable energy, it has embraced natural gas like few other companies.

In the water was Meta’s 200-megawatt gas-fired power plant in Ohio, announced in June last year, which will power one of its data centers.

Two months later, Meta said it would build three large natural gas-fired power plants in Louisiana to supply electricity to its Hyperion data center. Then in April, the company announced it would finance seven more natural gas power plants for the same project. Combined, the 10 power plants will produce 7.5 gigawatts, enough electricity to power the state of South Dakota and more.

Meta, through a spokesperson, told TechCrunch that it remains committed to matching its data center’s electricity use “with 100% clean, renewable energy.”

That’s a lot to count. While natural gas burns cleaner than coal, it still produces significant amounts of pollution. A single 1 GW data center operating 24/7, powered exclusively by natural gas, will emit 438 metric tons of nitrogen oxides, 149 metric tons of fine particulate matter, 61 metric tons of sulfur oxides, and 298 metric tons of carbon monoxide. These pollutants contribute to a range of diseases, including asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and dementia, among many others.

Meta can still claim to be 100% renewable by purchasing Eco Attribute Certificates. This allows companies to invest in a solar farm in Arizona, for example, while building a data center in Ohio. As long as the solar farm produces enough energy in one year to offset the data center’s use, Meta considers it 100% renewable.

Most companies have addressed their renewable energy goals using annual matching, but some, including Microsoft, are striving to match their electricity use on an hourly basis. This more stringent approach would bring energy production more in line with how data centers use electricity. It also encourages companies to invest in projects that link renewable energy sources to batteries, as Google did earlier this year in Minnesota, rather than polluting those projects like Meta’s Hyperion power plants.

Meta is not the only company pursuing natural gas. Both Google and Microsoft have recently invested in large fossil fuel projects, but it has placed the biggest bet. A withdrawal or removal from a voluntary industry group isn’t always big news, but the timing, amid Meta’s fossil fuel backlog, makes the change difficult to ignore.