A Louisiana state regulator has approved Entergy’s deal with Meta to power the tech giant’s largest data center to date. Three massive power plants, slated to come online in 2028 and 2029, will generate 2.25 gigawatts of electricity to support the facility. At full capacity, the AI data center could consume up to 5 gigawatts as it expands. The project, however, has already stirred controversy.
An industry-affiliated coalition has raised concerns that Meta and Entergy could receive preferential treatment on the second phase of the data center project, which includes building 1.5 gigawatts of solar capacity across Louisiana, the Louisiana Illuminator reported. The group—formed by companies such as Dow Chemical, Chevron, and ExxonMobil after struggling to secure renewable power for their own operations—warns of an uneven playing field.
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Meta’s 15-year deal with Entergy has also sparked questions about costs once the contract expires. Natural gas plants typically operate for about 30 years, raising the risk that ratepayers could be left covering expenses well beyond the agreement. Large-scale projects of this kind often run over budget, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, which noted that consumers will also bear the $550 million cost of a transmission line to the data center.
Louisiana pulled out all the stops to secure the Meta deal. “What I see is an opportunity for this industry to grow in a way it hasn’t seen in many decades,” Phillip May, CEO of Entergy Louisiana, said at the time. The state was one of the few able to offer a site large enough to meet Meta’s needs—spanning the equivalent of 1,700 football fields. The facility will consume nearly twice as much electricity as New Orleans on a peak day, but Entergy said it can supply the demand.
In June, Governor Jeff Landry signed into law a 20-year sales tax exemption for data centers built before 2029. “It’s one of the things that we look at,” Rachel Peterson, Meta’s vice president of data centers, said of the incentive. “Obviously these are very high investment capital projects for us and any others who are developing data centers and investing in them. So, we do look at the overall cost of the project to make sure it’s in line with what we’d expect.”
Recently, Meta has been on a spree of renewable energy purchases, including a 20-year agreement with Constellation to buy nuclear power. But the addition of natural gas plants will make its 2030 net-zero pledge significantly harder to meet. To offset the emissions, Meta will need to purchase credits from carbon removal projects.
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