Despite big Texas solar purchase agreement, Meta still uses lots of gas

Meta has signed a deal to buy power from a new 144-megawatt solar project in Gonzales County, Texas, called Starling Solar. The developer, Apex Clean Energy, says the project wouldn't exist without Meta's financial backing, and it's expected to start generating power next year. But the solar farm is less than half the size of a 366-megawatt gas-fired plant Meta plans to use for a separate data center in El Paso, highlighting how much of the company's growth is still powered by fossil fuels even as it signs clean-energy deals.

The timing raises questions, since Meta quietly left RE100, a corporate renewable-energy group it had belonged to for a decade, earlier this year. The company says this has no bearing on its clean-energy goals and points to more than 30 gigawatts of clean energy it has helped bring online nationwide. Energy analysts note that Meta has a real track record of funding wind and solar, but worry the pace of its data center buildout for artificial intelligence is pushing it toward quicker, easier gas power instead.

For homeowners, the direct impact is limited, but the broader trend matters: data centers are adding major new demand to state power grids, including in Texas, where electricity use has hit record highs this year. More renewable projects like Starling can help supply, and bring local benefits such as tax revenue and landowner lease payments, but growing gas use for AI data centers could affect grid costs and emissions over time.