From ElPasoTimes.com, in case you’ve been dozing:
Meta Platforms Inc., the company that operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp social media platforms and other enterprises is the company looking at possibly putting a huge data center in Northeast El Paso.
You know what data centers like? Cheap electricity.
From the U.S. Department of Energy:
Data centers are one of the most energy-intensive building types, consuming 10 to 50 times the energy per floor space of a typical commercial office building. Collectively, these spaces account for approximately 2% of the total U.S. electricity use, and as our country’s use of information technology grows, data center and server energy use is expected to grow too.
And now, from PVMagazine.com:
Meta, the social media giant behind Facebook and Instagram, is focused on renewable energy deployments, which are currently expanding at an impressive 30% compound annual growth rate. Urvi Parekh, director of renewable energy, discussed the company’s clean energy initiatives at the Solar Energy Industry Association’s Finance, Tax and Buyers Seminar held in New York.
At present, Meta stands as the largest commercial and industrial purchaser of solar power in the U.S., boasting close to 3.6 GW of installed solar capacity. Parekh also revealed that the company has over 9 GW of capacity awaiting development over the coming years.
One of Meta’s procurement strategies concerns the siting of new data centers. The company clarified that they do not necessarily own these data centers but they incorporate an “emissions first” rationale into their process, making inquiries with suppliers and aiming for local sourcing wherever feasible. When selecting a data center site, a key factor influencing the major electricity buyer’s decision is the ability to collaborate with the local utility.
Which is great, right? Now El Paso Electric won’t have to stick it to the local ratepayers. EPEC can stick it to Meta.
Ha! Just kidding.
El Paso Electric will use Meta’s demand to justify the building of more generating stations, and guess who will pay for that?
Do you have a mirror handy?
Hi Rich,
Thanks again for providing our Aussie family of 4 a great tour of downtown Juarez today. And of course, the safe crossing of the Rio Grande in both directions. Kids highlight was the markets, Mum and Dad’s was the Margarita’s at the Kentucky Club!
All the best,
The Karchers
Any economic growth will consume energy. So what do we want? It could be another Amazon center guzzeling diesel fuel or a refinery producing it. Until New Economy/Next System principles are embedded in the business ecosystem, growth will equal energy consumption. In an ecosystem, everybody lives downstream and everthing is recycled, so design around that idea rather than a landfill being the ultimate destination of the physical economy.
Happy New Year and thanks for your blog, Rich.