Meta Reserves Up to 1 GW in Deal for Overview Energy’s Space-Based Solar Power
Meta reserves up to 1 GW from Overview Energy’s space-based solar power system, which would beam infrared light to solar farms to power data centers at night.
Meta announced a capacity reservation with Overview Energy on Tuesday that marks a high-profile commitment to space-based solar power, a technology that would beam infrared light from orbit to augment terrestrial solar farms. The agreement covers up to 1 gigawatt of capacity and is framed as an option to receive power when customer solar fields need additional light after sunset. Meta said the move is intended to bolster its renewable energy supply as its data-center electricity demand continues to grow.
Deal specifics and contractual terms
Overview Energy said the contract represents its first capacity reservation, measured in a new unit the company calls "megawatt photons," which quantifies the amount of light required to generate a megawatt of electricity on the ground. Meta did not disclose whether any funds changed hands in the announcement and did not provide pricing or firm delivery guarantees tied to the reservation. Company statements indicate the deal is intended to secure future access to Overview’s planned fleet rather than immediate energy deliveries.
How Overview proposes to beam energy
Overview’s system converts sunlight collected in space into near-infrared light and transmits a wide beam to existing solar farms, which would then generate electricity from that light. The startup says its approach avoids the concentrated lasers and high-power microwave transmission methods that have raised safety and regulatory concerns in other space-power concepts. Overview’s CEO has asserted the beam would be safe to view directly, describing it as a broad, low-intensity infrared illumination rather than a hazardous focused beam.
Prototype tests and launch timeline
Overview has already demonstrated power transmission from an aircraft and plans to conduct its first orbital transmission from a low-Earth-orbit satellite scheduled for January 2028. The company expects to begin launching satellites that would fulfill commercial commitments in 2030 and is aiming for a fleet of roughly 1,000 spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit. Overview projects each satellite will provide more than a decade of service and that an initial deployment could cover a belt reaching from the U.S. West Coast to Western Europe.
Scale, coverage and Meta’s energy needs
Meta reported consuming more than 18,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity in 2024, a scale comparable to the annual consumption of more than a million households, and has committed to building 30 gigawatts of renewable capacity. Company officials have focused investment on industrial-scale solar plants, which typically require batteries or backup generation to supply power at night. By linking orbital illumination to utility-scale solar farms, Meta and Overview argue the approach could increase the utilization and return on investment of those terrestrial assets.
Technical and regulatory hurdles ahead
Experts caution that moving from demonstrations to a global, multi-hundred-satellite constellation entails major engineering, regulatory and economic challenges. Transmitting energy from space will require precise coordination with grid operators, upgrades at receiving solar farms, and international agreements governing orbital operations and cross-border energy flows. Safety standards, spectrum rights and oversight of high-altitude optical transmissions are likely to attract scrutiny from national regulators and international bodies.
Market implications for data centers and grids
If scaled, space-based solar power could alter how data-center operators procure renewable energy, offering a dispatchable option complementary to batteries and grid balancing services. The model Overview proposes — delivering generation and transmission paired to where power is most valuable — could lower curtailment of daytime solar output and reduce reliance on fossil-fuel peaker plants. Investors and utilities will be watching the cost per megawatt-hour and the reliability metrics that Overview can demonstrate in operational trials.
Overview and Meta frame the agreement as an early commercial validation of a new approach to renewable supply chains, but the road to widespread deployment remains long. The proposed geosynchronous fleet, regulatory approvals, ground infrastructure adaptations and demonstrated long-term economics will determine whether beamed infrared from orbit moves from experimental to mainstream.
