(The Center Square) —Facebook parent company Meta will contract to purchase power generated at two new solar energy plants in Louisiana, a move that will help power the company’s new $10 billion data center and meet its long-term climate goals.
Meta has signed an agreement with Texas-based Treaty Oak Clean Energy, a builder and operator of utility-scale solar and battery storage projects, to supply power generated at the 200-megawatt Hollis Creek Solar Plant in Sabine Parish and the 185-megawatt Beekman Solar Plant in Morehouse Parish. The plants will deliver a combined 385 megawatts to the local grid in Entergy’s territory in northeast and west central Louisiana, Treaty Oak said in a statement.
While Meta will purchase the renewable energy credits associated with the two plants, the electricity produced will help power the social media giant’s new AI data center under construction in Richland Parish. As part of its strategy to reach net-zero emissions by 2030, Meta typically either purchases carbon removal credits or invests in renewable power projects connected to the same grid as its data centers and offices.
Urvi Parekh, Meta’s head of global energy, said the solar plants will bring clean energy to the local grid. “When we announced our AI data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana, last year we committed to working with our partners to bring new energy to the grid — and this agreement with Treaty Oak does just that, while also helping match our operations with clean energy while contributing to local energy resilience and economic growth across Louisiana.”
The announcement follows the Louisiana Public Service Commission’s approval in August of a settlement with the Southern Renewable Energy Association, Walmart, the Sierra Club and others that allows Entergy to build three new natural gas generation plants and transmission facilities to power Meta’s data center, as reported by The Center Square.
As part of the settlement, Entergy committed to the expedited procurement and certification of up to 1,500 megawatts of solar or hybrid power, which Meta will use to help meet its clean energy targets. Entergy also agreed to update its request for proposals process for renewables to include wind energy.
Meta’s Richland Parish data center is expected to consume about 2,000 megawatts of power when it goes online, with its electricity demand potentially reaching as much as 5,000 gigawatts.
The solar plants are expected to generate over $100 million each in combined state and local taxes and about 300 jobs during peak construction, Treaty Oak said. The company expects to bring both solar facilities into service in the third quarter of 2027. State regulators and local parish governments must also approve each of the solar plants.
Treaty Oak, a portfolio company of Macquarie Asset Management, began construction on a 100-megawatt solar power plant in Arkansas in October 2024 and expects to begin producing clean energy in the first or second quarter of 2026.
Macquarie Asset Management is one of the world’s largest infrastructure managers with more than 105 gigawatts of green energy assets currently under development or in operation. On Oct. 23, Louisiana regulators approved a 200-megawatt solar plant near Bogalusa in Washington Parish being developed by Galehead Development, a subsidiary of Macquarie Asset Management.
Meta has contracted to purchase power generated at solar facilities in other states as well. The company agreed on Oct. 27 to purchase 600 megawatts from a large solar farm near Lubbock, Texas, which will feed the local grid beginning in 2027. So far in 2025, Meta has signed agreements to purchase more than 3 gigawatts of solar power from U.S. companies.
To meet a pledge to be “water positive” by 2030, Meta has vowed to restore more water than it uses in its operations, and earlier this year the company committed to a reforestation and wetland treatment project at Bayou Pierre in the Red River watershed, near the company’s data center site in northeast Louisiana.
Meta is partnering with Houston-based Resource Environmental Solutions to improve water quality in the watershed through the restoration of a 316-acre cattle pasture to native forested upland and wetland habitats, according to Meta’s website. The company estimates the project will restore 36.1 million gallons of water annually to the Red River watershed.