Data centers have become so large that their power demands are now equivalent to an entire U.S. state. Take Meta’s Hyperion AI data center, for example. Once completed, the new AI data center will consume as much electricity as the state of South Dakota.
Meta announced last week that it would fund seven natural gas power plants to support the $27 billion data center, in addition to the three it had already committed to building. Together, Louisiana’s 10 power plants will generate about 7.5 gigawatts of electricity, slightly more than the entire Mount Rushmore state.
Like many technology companies, Meta has long touted the integrity of its climate and environmental efforts. The company regularly publishes sustainability reports and frequently makes claims about purchasing renewable energy. In effect, it has acquired a nuclear power plant for 20 years.
Meta’s Hyperion data center site in Louisiana will test the company’s efforts.
Natural gas has been hailed as a “bridge fuel” and is currently building several natural gas power plants, while renewables, batteries, and nuclear power are below it. That’s almost certainly how Meta is justifying this move internally.
But while people have been making the bridge-to-fuel argument for decades, the argument has faded a bit. Renewable energy and battery prices have plummeted, while gas turbine prices have soared. Meta’s decision to make a big move into natural gas is further complicated by the fact that it has become a major purchaser of solar power, batteries and nuclear power in recent years.
TechCrunch reached out to Meta. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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Louisiana’s giant turbines will pump 12.4 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year, according to TechCrunch calculations based on Department of Energy data. This is 50% higher than Meta’s overall carbon footprint in 2024, the most recent year for which such figures are available.
This figure also underestimates the climate impact, as it does not include leaks from the natural gas supply chain.
Methane, the main component of natural gas, warms the planet 84 times more than carbon dioxide. Even with a leakage rate of 0.2% along the supply chain, the climate impact of natural gas can be more severe than that of coal. In the United States, natural gas production and pipelines leak methane at a rate of nearly 3%. That’s not clean power.
The company’s latest sustainability report makes no mention of methane leaks. There is no mention of methane or natural gas. Still, the fuel is expected to be one of the largest contributors to Meta’s carbon footprint in the coming years.
The company may stick to its climate pledges and find ways to offset those emissions through carbon removal credits. But going forward, we will need more methane, and we will need to accurately calculate how much methane will leak into the atmosphere to power new power plants.
