Richland Parish, an idyllic rural area in northeast Louisiana, is set to host a gigantic new Meta datacenter. But instead of employing the on-site nuclear power plants Zuckercorp has previously advocated for, the facility will drive its AI workloads using fossil fuels. This 4 million square foot, $10 billion facility, referred to by Louisiana governor Jeff Landry as 'a game changer', will be Meta's largest-ever datacenter.
Meta has decided to partner with Entergy for this project, transitioning away from its nuclear power advocacy for immediate energy needs. Entergy plans to construct three combined-cycle combustion turbine (CCCT) plants totaling 2,262 megawatts of energy generation capacity. These plants, which burn natural gas, are marketed as less polluting than traditional natural gas facilities, but they still emit greenhouse gases.
While Entergy claims the CCCT plants will be built with technology to co-fire 30 percent hydrogen to reduce emissions, Meta announced that it would offset its fossil fuel usage with carbon credits. Critics may argue this is not a real solution to the climate crisis, pointing to the ongoing reliance on fossil fuels rather than a swift transition to sustainable energy resources.
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