The rush to capitalize on the buzz around AI has led tech companies to dramatically expand their data center footprints. That’s been good news for companies like Nvidia, but it has also led to unprecedented growth in the power industry. New and expanded data centers are expected to double the sector’s power demand by 2029, according to JLL. As a result, developers and tech companies have been working overtime to lock in capacity. Nuclear and natural gas have gotten boosts from the forecasted demand, but few technologies have benefited in the near term like solar. Though solar power suffers from what experts call intermittency — it won’t produce if the sun isn’t shining — the upsides have been so significant that companies have been inking large deals at a rapid pace. Unlike advanced nuclear reactors, which have yet to be deployed at commercial scale, solar power is proven technology. And unlike new natural gas power plants, which take years to plan and construct, the average completion time for a new solar farm is about 18 months. Plus, it’s one of the lowest-cost sources of new generating capacity. Since the start of 2025, tech companies and data center operators have backed 12 solar deals, each adding more than 100 megawatts of capacity to the grid. January Meta kicked off the year with a 200-megawatt solar deal with multinational electric utility Engie. The purchase went toward a solar farm near one of the company’s existing data centers in Texas. At the time of the deal, Meta already had over 12 gigawatts of generating capacity in its renewable portfolio. Later in January, the Stargate AI partnership between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank Group was reported by Bloomberg to be powered, at least in part, by solar. SB Energy, which is part of SoftBank’s portfolio, is expected to develop solar installations backed by grid-scale batteries. Meta closed out the month with another massive solar deal, this one with Spanish renewable developer Zelestra. The contract was for...
First seen: 2025-03-30 14:33
Last seen: 2025-03-31 16:42