The firms said on Thursday that Meta (META.O) and XGS Energy have inked a deal to assist in the development of 150 megawatts of advanced geothermal electricity in New Mexico to power the Facebook parent company’s push into artificial intelligence.

WHY IT IS ESSENTIAL

One of the main causes of the record U.S. power usage predicted for 2025 and 2026 is the unprecedented power deals that giant tech companies like Meta are making to secure enormous amounts of electricity for the data centers required to create AI.

Big Tech businesses, many of which have emissions reduction targets, are increasingly using geothermal energy as a source of electricity because it doesn’t emit carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Advanced geothermal energy generation is independent of natural water sources, in contrast to conventional geothermal power generation.

Google said last year that it would use Fervo Energy’s cutting-edge geothermal electricity to power its data centers.

OVERVIEW

Although 150 megawatts is a small portion of the many gigawatts of electricity that tech companies are aiming for to run AI, it would account for roughly 4% of all geothermal production in the United States.

There is 160,000 megawatts of unrealized geothermal power generation potential in New Mexico, which owns a portion of the largest shale oil basin in the world.

By the end of the decade, it is anticipated that the phased-in project between XGS and Meta will be operational. Meta’s operations in the state will be supported by the sophisticated geothermal electricity that will be added to the electric grid.

ESSENTIAL WORDS

Urvi Parekh, Global Head of Energy at Meta, stated in a written statement that “geothermal can be a major player in supporting the advancement of technologies like AI as well as domestic data center development, especially with next-generation geothermal technologies like XGS ready for scale.”

“To open up a new category of energy supply for our operations in New Mexico, we are thrilled to collaborate with XGS,” she stated.