Meta Quits RE100 to Power AI With 10 Gas Plants
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- Meta quit RE100 — the 444-company corporate renewables initiative it joined as Facebook in 2016 — after Recharge first reported the split on July 23.
- Meta is funding 10 gas-fired power plants in Louisiana totaling roughly 7.5 GW for AI data centers: three original plants at 2.26 GW for Hyperion, plus seven additional combined-cycle plants (5.2+ GW) announced via Entergy Louisiana in March 2026, and a separate 200 MW behind-the-meter gas project in Ohio from June 2025.
- The New York Times reports Hyperion couldn't get full insurance coverage because of its size and floodplain location.
- Google agreed to buy 400 MW from an Illinois gas plant with carbon capture, and Microsoft signed a 20-year deal for a 2.67 GW West Texas gas plant — but both remain on RE100's roster alongside Apple.
- Meta says it still matches 100% of annual electricity use with renewables via RECs/PPAs and has backed 30+ GW of wind, solar, battery, nuclear, and geothermal — but its data centers will run on fossil-fuel electricity 24/7; the Entergy Louisiana package includes up to 2.5 GW of renewables alongside the gas buildout.
Why it matters: Meta is the only Big Tech defector from RE100, letting it keep the '100% renewable' brand via paper credits while locking in decades of fossil baseload from new gas plants. Google and Microsoft are also buying gas for AI but haven't quit the pledge — making Meta the accountability outlier among hyperscalers.
