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Meta Signs Deal for Space-Based Solar Power, 1,000 Satellites to Beam Energy to Data Centers at Night

goodinfo.net — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 18:00:00 +0800

Meta Signs Deal for Space-Based Solar Power, 1,000 Satellites to Beam Energy to Data Centers at Night

April 27, 2026 18:00 CST | Source: TechCrunch

Key Points

The race to secure electricity for AI models has reached new heights. Meta has signed an agreement with space solar startup Overview Energy that could see a thousand satellites beam infrared light to terrestrial solar farms, providing continuous power to data centers through the night.

Energy Demand Context

In 2024, Meta’s data centers consumed more than 18,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity — roughly enough to power over 1.7 million American homes for a year. With the company’s compute needs only increasing, it has committed to building 30 gigawatts of renewable power sources, with a focus on industrial-scale solar power plants.

Traditionally, data centers relying on solar power must either invest in battery storage systems or depend on other generation sources to operate at night.

Space-Based Solar Solution

Overview Energy, a four-year-old company based in Ashburn, Virginia, emerged from stealth mode in December. Its solution: developing spacecraft that collect abundant solar power in space, then convert that energy to near-infrared light and beam it at sufficiently large solar farms (hundreds of megawatts), which convert that light back to electricity.

By using a wide infrared beam to power existing terrestrial solar infrastructure, Overview believes it can sidestep the technological challenges, safety concerns, and regulatory issues that plague plans to transmit power to Earth via high-power lasers or microwave beams. CEO Marc Berte says you could stare directly into the satellite’s beam with no ill effects.

Agreement Details

In today’s announcement, Meta said it signed the first capacity reservation agreement with Overview to receive up to 1 gigawatt of power from the company’s spacecraft, although it’s unclear whether any money changed hands. Overview developed a new metric for this contract — “megawatt photons” — representing the amount of light required to generate a megawatt of electricity.

Timeline

Berte expects to begin launching the satellites needed to fulfill this commitment in 2030, with a goal of flying 1,000 spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit — a high orbit where each satellite remains fixed above the same point on Earth. He expects each spacecraft to provide power from space for more than 10 years.

Overview plans to launch a satellite to low Earth orbit in January 2028 for its first power transmission from space. The company says it has already demonstrated power transmission to the ground from an aircraft.

Coverage

Once in space, the fleet will be able to cover about a third of the planet, with an initial deployment spanning from the US West Coast to Western Europe. As the Earth rotates and customer solar farms enter evening and nighttime, Overview’s spacecraft will boost their electrical generation with additional light from space.

Berte sees opportunity in combining both generation and transmission, with the flexibility to deliver power to solar farms wherever and whenever it is most valuable.

“There’s a big difference between being in any one energy market, and being in all of the energy markets,” Berte told TechCrunch.

Source: TechCrunch - Meta inks deal for solar power at night, beamed from space

AI Data Centers Hit Interconnect Limits, Boosting Optical Module Demand

goodinfo.net — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0800

AI Data Centers Hit Interconnect Limits, Boosting Optical Module Demand

As the scale of global AI data centers continues to expand at an unprecedented pace, traditional electrical interconnect technologies are hitting fundamental physical barriers. According to a DigiTimes report published on April 26, 2026, high-speed interconnects within AI data centers have reached their limits, prompting the industry to accelerate its transition to all-optical networking solutions and triggering a surge in optical module demand.

Electrical Interconnects Approaching Physical Limits

Currently, mainstream AI training clusters rely on high-speed electrical signals to transmit data between GPUs, servers, and racks. However, as single-cluster GPU counts have scaled from thousands to hundreds of thousands, data transmission rates have jumped from 400Gbps to 1.6Tbps and even 3.2Tbps. At these speeds, signal attenuation and electromagnetic interference in copper cables have become increasingly severe, compressing effective transmission distances to just a few meters — creating a critical bottleneck for data center scalability.

Industry analysts note that traditional electrical interconnects also face severe challenges in power consumption and thermal management. The power consumption of high-speed SerDes (serializer/deserializer) chips grows exponentially with transmission rate. In large-scale clusters, interconnect power alone can account for more than 15% of total energy consumption.

All-Optical Interconnects as the Inevitable Path Forward

Faced with the limitations of electrical interconnects, the industry widely predicts that all interconnect links within AI data centers will adopt optical solutions within the next five years. Optical interconnects offer significantly higher bandwidth density, longer transmission distances, and lower power consumption — making them essential for supporting the communication demands of next-generation ultra-large-scale AI clusters.

The maturation of silicon photonics technology has been a key driver of this transition. By integrating optical components onto standard silicon-based chips, optical module manufacturing costs have been substantially reduced, while size and power consumption have been significantly optimized. Major optical module suppliers are ramping up R&D and production capacity for 1.6T and 3.2T optical modules to meet rapidly growing market demand.

Supply Chain Benefiting

The surge in optical module demand is driving prosperity across the entire supply chain. From optical chips and electrical chips to packaging and testing, every segment is facing pressure to expand capacity. Market research firms project that the global AI optical module market in 2026 will exceed previous forecasts, with annual growth rates remaining above 40%.

Notably, China holds a significant position in optical module manufacturing, with several leading companies at the forefront of 1.6T optical module mass production timelines. As the all-optical interconnect trend accelerates, the financial performance of related companies is expected to continue benefiting from this structural shift.

Source: DigiTimes

Maine Governor Vetoes Bill That Would Have Imposed First U.S. Data Center Moratorium

goodinfo.net — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 06:15:00 +0800

Maine Governor Vetoes Bill That Would Have Imposed First U.S. Data Center Moratorium

Maine Governor Janet Mills has vetoed L.D. 307, a bill that would have temporarily halted permits for new data center construction until November 1, 2027. Had it passed, it would have been the first statewide moratorium on data center construction in the United States.

Bill Provisions

L.D. 307 would not only pause new data center construction but also establish a 13-member council to study and make recommendations on data center development. With public opposition to data centers growing, other states including New York have considered similar moratoriums.

Reasons for Veto

In a letter to the state legislature, Mills — a Democrat currently running for the U.S. Senate — said that pausing new data centers would be “appropriate given the impacts of massive data centers in other states on the environment and on electricity rates.” However, she indicated she “would have signed this bill” if it had included an exemption for a data center project in the Town of Jay.

Mills noted that the Jay project “enjoys strong local support from its host community and region” and should not be subject to a blanket ban.

Reactions

Melanie Sachs, the Democratic state representative who sponsored the bill, strongly criticized the veto. She stated that Mills’ decision “poses significant potential consequences for all ratepayers, our electric grid, our environment, and our shared energy future.”

The incident highlights the dilemma U.S. states face in responding to the data center construction boom driven by AI and cloud computing — balancing industrial demand with environmental protection and energy supply.

Source: TechCrunch