The company’s second partnership focuses on another major weakness in renewable energy systems: storage.
While lithium-ion battery systems are effective for short-duration storage, they are generally not designed for sustained power delivery over multiple days. Meta says Noon Energy’s technology can provide more than 100 hours of energy storage using reversible solid oxide fuel cells and carbon-based storage systems. Under the agreement, Meta has reserved up to 1 GW / 100 GWh of storage capacity, with an initial 25 MW / 2.5 GWh pilot project expected in 2028.
Long-duration storage systems like these are becoming increasingly important as grids absorb larger amounts of renewable energy. Extended storage could allow excess renewable energy generated during peak production periods to remain available through prolonged low-generation periods, helping stabilize power availability for continuously operating AI infrastructure.
Meta says both partnerships are a part of its broader strategy to secure long-term energy supplies for future AI expansion. The company says it has already contracted more than 30 GW of clean, renewable energy and has also backed geothermal and nuclear energy projects, including agreements involving 7.7 GW of nuclear capacity.
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Etiido Uko is an engineer and technical writer with over nine years of experience in documentation and reporting. He is deeply passionate about all things gadgets, technology, and engineering. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-22/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Etiido Uko Social Links Navigation News Contributor Etiido Uko is an engineer and technical writer with over nine years of experience in documentation and reporting. He is deeply passionate about all things gadgets, technology, and engineering.
-Fran- The environmental impact of a, what will be in essence, "death beam" will surely be interesting to debate. Including Air Traffic around the area! Even if it'll be "low intensity", it'll still need a proper study around harms to the areas and risks. Also, low energy beams would require a lot of space so you make up for the low energy density. Interesting thought process, for sure. Regards. Reply
bill001g Meta has way too much money when they give it to companies that have some idea that has been around for years that nobody has figure out how to actually implement. They would have to have systems already being assembled to even think about having anything in orbit in 2 years. The time to get a slot from one the rocket launch companies is more than that. Almost seem like meta is being scammed. One of these companies meta is giving money to has not even existed for 4 years it is unlikely they have anything more than design ideas. It takes a very long time and lots of money to get even prototype boards from manufactures and they need stuff that can survive being launched into space. Reply
Gururu Doesn't that solar energy end up adding more heat to the earth whatever energy it is ultimately converted to? Reply
usertests Those satellites would harvest solar energy in space and beam it down to Earth-based solar farms using low-intensity near-infrared light. I remember China wanted to do it with microwaves: https://sustainabilitymag.com/articles/chinas-1km-solar-array-the-manhattan-project-of-energy Gururu said: Doesn't that solar energy end up adding more heat to the earth whatever energy it is ultimately converted to? It should be the same with nuclear fission/fusion, etc. If we started producing say 10,000x the energy that we use today, Earth wouldn't be able to radiate it away fast enough and we would cook. The global electricity production should be at least 20 TW (20,000 GW), so another 1 GW or 30 GW isn't going to have a significant effect. Space based solar doesn't produce greenhouse gases beyond construction and the rockets deploying the panels (maybe significant?). So it may be better than hydrocarbon sources. The real question: can it be cheap? Maybe if launch costs fall. Reply
edman565 Wasn't this a type of power plant in one of the early Simcity games? Occasionally the beam would miss the collector and start fires so you had to keep open space around it. Reply
teckel12 Isn't sunlight beamed down to Earth without any human involvement? Wouldn't the gain from solar collection in space be offset by the loss from beaming it through the atmosphere? It just seems that solar panels on Earth would be about as efficient once you factor everything. Not to mention the much higher cost and energy used to put solar collectors in space. This just doesn't seem financially or technically viable. Reply
edman565 I think the idea is that the beam can work on the dark/night side of the planet if the solar reflector is at the right angle. This way it's a 24×7 supply. I am very skeptical that it would be worth it, but maybe the people paying for the experiment believe otherwise. Reply
rgd1101 can't wait for the lawsuit Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/meta-will-beam-sunlight-from-space-to-power-ai-data-centers-solar-collecting-satellites-will-orbit-22-000-miles-above-earth-firm-reserves-1-gigawatt-of-orbital-solar-energy-and-100-gigawatt-hours-of-long-duration-storage#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.