Meta on Monday entered a landmark agreement with Overview Energy, a Virginia-based space solar startup, to secure up to one gigawatt of power from satellites that will harvest sunlight in orbit and beam it to Earth as near-infrared light, in the first commercial capacity reservation of its kind anywhere in the world.
The deal, announced on April 27, gives Meta early access to Overview’s planned satellite network. The company’s spacecraft will collect solar energy continuously in geosynchronous orbit and transmit it as low-intensity, near-infrared light to existing ground-based solar installations, which will convert that light into electricity. The approach extends a solar farm’s generation hours through the evening and night without requiring new land, new fuel sources, or additional grid infrastructure on the ground.
“Space solar technology represents a transformative step forward by leveraging existing terrestrial infrastructure to deliver new, uninterrupted energy from orbit,” said Nat Sahlstrom, Meta’s Vice President of Energy and Sustainability.
Overview Energy was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia. The company emerged from stealth in December 2025 after demonstrating power transmission from an aircraft to the ground. An initial orbital demonstration using a satellite in low Earth orbit (LEO) is scheduled for January 2028, with commercial power delivery expected by 2030. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Overview Chief Executive Officer Marc Berte plans to begin launching satellites toward that commercial target in 2030, aiming for a constellation of 1,000 spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit, a high altitude at which each satellite remains fixed above the same point on Earth’s surface. Once operational, the fleet is projected to cover roughly one-third of the planet, with an initial deployment range stretching from the United States West Coast to Western Europe. As Earth rotates and solar farms enter darkness, Overview’s satellites will supplement their electrical output with additional light beamed from space.
The partnership reflects the extraordinary pressure now facing technology companies to secure sufficient clean energy for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Meta’s data centres have consumed rapidly increasing volumes of electricity in recent years, and the company has made commitments to scale up its renewable energy capacity significantly to meet growing demand from AI workloads.
Overview’s technology sidesteps safety and regulatory concerns that have long surrounded space-based energy proposals by using a broad, low-intensity infrared beam rather than high-power lasers or microwave transmission. Berte has said the beam carries no risk to humans, animals, or aircraft.
If proven at scale, the technology could reduce dependence on fossil fuel backup power, improve the return on investment from large solar installations, and introduce a new layer of flexibility to global electricity grids by enabling real-time power delivery across different regions as demand shifts.
