Meta plunge into natural gas could power South Dakota

Data centers have become so large that their power needs now rival entire US states. Take Meta’s Hyperion AI data center, for example. When completed, the new AI data center will consume as much electricity as the state of South Dakota.

Last week, Meta announced it would finance seven natural gas power plants — in addition to the three it has already committed to building — to support the $27 billion data center. When combined, Louisiana’s 10 power plants will generate about 7.5 gigawatts of electricity, slightly more than the capacity of the entire Mount Rushmore state.

Like many tech companies, Meta has touted its climate and environmental bona fides over the years. It regularly publishes sustainability reports, and often boasts of its renewable energy purchases. It effectively bought a nuclear power plant for 20 years.

Meta’s Hyperion data center location in Louisiana will test the company’s liabilities.

Natural gas has been hailed as a “bridge fuel” – build a few natural gas power plants now while renewables, batteries and nuclear power make it work. This is almost certainly how Meta justifies the move internally.

But people have been making the bridge fuel argument for decades, and that argument is starting to weaken somewhat. Renewables and battery prices have fallen, while gas turbine prices have risen significantly. Meta has been a leading buyer of solar, battery and nuclear energy in recent years, making the decision to expand into natural gas very puzzling.

TechCrunch reached out to Meta. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The massive turbines in Louisiana will eliminate 12.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide₂ into the atmosphere each year, according to TechCrunch’s calculations, which are based on data from the Department of Energy. That’s 50% more than Meta’s total carbon footprint in 2024, the latest year for which these numbers are available.

This number also underestimates the climate impact, because it does not include leaks from the natural gas supply chain.

Methane, the main component of natural gas, warms the planet 84 times more than carbon dioxide. Even leakage rates of 0.2% along the supply chain could make the climate impact of natural gas worse than that of coal. In the United States, methane leaks from natural gas production and pipelines at a rate approaching 3%. This is hardly clean power.

The company’s latest sustainability report did not mention any methane leaks. He did not mention methane or natural gas at all. However, fuel is expected to become one of the largest contributors to Meta’s carbon footprint in the coming years.

The company might stick to its climate pledge and find a way to offset those emissions through carbon removal credits. But now it will need more of it, along with an honest accounting of how much methane will escape into the atmosphere specifically to fuel its new power plants.