Overview
- Climate Group confirmed late July that Meta has withdrawn from the RE100 corporate renewables pledge because its investments in new gas power no longer meet the initiative’s technical criteria.
- Meta is funding a large fleet of natural-gas plants to supply its data centers, including roughly 10 combined-cycle units in Louisiana totaling about 7.5 gigawatts and a separate 200 megawatt behind-the-meter gas project in Ohio.
- Entergy’s Louisiana package tied to Meta’s buildout reportedly also includes funding for up to about 2.5 gigawatts of renewables for the wider grid.
- Meta continues to say it ‘matches’ 100% of annual electricity use through renewable energy contracts and credits and has backed roughly 30 gigawatts of clean projects, a practice that delivers annual accounting but not direct hourly renewable supply to its sites.
- The move highlights a wider industry trade-off where rapid AI-driven electricity growth, slow grid and storage expansion, and permitting limits are pushing tech firms toward fossil plants with real risks for emissions, reputations, insurance coverage, and local resilience.