NEW ORLEANS – As Meta’s Hyperion data center drives the development of 10 new natural gas power plants in north Louisiana, geothermal, nuclear, solar and other energy technologies offer alternative ways to meet the enormous power demands.
Entergy Louisiana is seeking regulatory approval to build seven additional natural gas power plants totaling about 5.3 gigawatts of generating capacity for Hyperion, on top of three plants approved last year. Together, the 10 plants would provide about 7.5 gigawatts of new generation associated with the Richland Parish data center.
Entergy is also pursuing three battery storage facilities as part of the Hyperion supply plan, including two 200-megawatt systems, along with a proposed 40-megawatt increase in output at its existing Waterford 3 nuclear plant. Meta says it will help fund up to 2.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy, but specific projects have not been announced and plans for new nuclear development remain exploratory.
Still, the Alliance for Affordable Energy argues that the reliance on new gas generation is not necessary, pointing instead to a combination of demand flexibility, solar and battery storage.
“As more information emerges that points to demand flexibility and battery power with solar being best suited to respond to AI-specific energy demand, it is astonishing that the big data center players aren’t demanding that,” the Alliance said. “We can’t imagine how this makes sense, and it is almost certainly going to end in stranded gas plants.”
Solar Plus Battery Storage
Solar plus battery storage is among the most readily deployable alternatives for meeting growing data-center electricity demand. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has identified solar, land-based wind, battery storage and energy efficiency among the most rapidly scalable and cost-competitive resources available to serve new data-center loads.
Solar generation varies with weather and time of day, but pairing it with battery storage provides firm power for data centers, according to Monika Gerhart, executive director of the Gulf States Renewable Energy Industries Association (GSREIA). Gerhart said getting the mix of generation and storage right is critical to making large data-center projects economically viable.
New Fundamentals’ PowerPlay tool, which uses data from Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy+ and the U.S. Energy Information Administration, estimates utility-scale solar in Louisiana at $40 per megawatt-hour and about 12 months to deploy, compared with $50 per megawatt-hour and 36 months for natural gas. Wind is estimated at $75 per megawatt-hour and 36 months to deploy, while nuclear is estimated at $110 per megawatt-hour and 96 months.
“Solar is the cheapest new generation in Louisiana and it comes online three times faster,” said New Fundamentals. “Clean energy is the cheapest and fastest resource available to keep up with a growing economy and a grid under strain.”
An analysis by the Corporate Energy Buyers Association found constraining clean energy deployment in Louisiana could increase electricity prices by 11.3% for households and 13.8% for businesses.
The Alliance for Affordable Energy argues that Louisiana’s existing transmission system has limited the ability to deploy renewable energy and storage at the scale needed.
“What’s especially frustrating is that this probably isn’t an accident. Entergy has spent decades underinvesting in the transmission infrastructure that would let solar, wind, and storage come online at the scale and speed this moment demands,” the Alliance said.
Geothermal Offers 24/7 Generation
Advanced geothermal can provide continuous power with capacity factors around 90%, according to DOE, making it well suited to the constant electricity demands of data centers. Enhanced geothermal systems could also expand development beyond conventional geothermal locations.
“As HotRok Energy is the only geothermal energy company based in Louisiana, I can confirm there are good geothermal energy resources throughout the state, especially in the northwestern part of Louisiana,” said Troy von Otnott, CEO of HotRok Energy. “EGS, Enhanced Geothermal Systems, is currently the most economic deep-well drilling solution to extract heat for the purpose of conversion to electricity.”
Meta is already pursuing geothermal power to help meet its data-center electricity demand, partnering with Sage Geosystems on a project expected to add up to 150 megawatts of geothermal generation to the grid east of the Rocky Mountains.
An LSU study of subsurface conditions in Union and Morehouse parishes found geothermal gradients averaging nearly 31 degrees Celsius per kilometer, with portions of Morehouse Parish averaging about 41 degrees per kilometer. Morehouse Parish borders Richland Parish, where Hyperion is under development, while earlier federal research has identified elevated underground temperatures across a broader swath of northern Louisiana.
Nuclear Could Provide Large-Scale, Continuous Power
Nuclear’s ability to provide continuous, high-capacity power makes it particularly suited to data centers, which DOE says can require reliability exceeding 99.999%. The obstacle for Hyperion is timing: building several gigawatts of conventional nuclear generation would take considerably longer than constructing natural gas plants or renewable resources such as wind and solar, and would not provide a near-term solution.
Small modular reactors could eventually offer a more flexible option. Typically producing up to 300 megawatts per reactor, SMRs are designed so multiple units can be deployed together and capacity added incrementally, potentially matching the growing power requirements of large data-center campuses. DOE specifically identifies SMRs as a potential source of reliable power for data centers and other energy-intensive industries.
Amazon is already pursuing that model. Its first planned project with Energy Northwest in Washington would use four X-energy reactors totaling 320 megawatts, with the ability to expand to 12 reactors and 960 megawatts. Amazon’s broader investment in X-energy is intended to support more than 5 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity by 2039. Construction on the Washington project is expected to begin by the end of the decade, with operations targeted for the 2030s.
Reducing the Power Data Centers Need
Another approach is to reduce how much electricity data centers require, particularly for cooling.
EnEarthia is developing a subsurface thermal storage system that uses deep brackish-water reservoirs to cool data centers and store the captured heat underground. The company says cooling can account for 30% to 40% of a data center’s electricity use and that its ResStor technology can reduce cooling electricity demand by about 80% while eliminating evaporative water consumption.
“Using shallow geothermal energy reservoirs with brackish water is a highly efficient geothermal solution for providing closed loop cooling applications for data centers not affecting local potable water resources,” said von Otnott. “This specific geo-cooling solution has been proven at European data centers to have reduced electricity costs associated with building cooling by up to 75%.”
Rather than generating electricity, ResStor uses naturally cold underground water for cooling, with captured heat stored for later recovery. EnEarthia says reducing cooling demand could free more available electricity for computing and reduce the need for additional generation and grid infrastructure.
