Meta Platforms Enters Solar-Power Pact With Space Startup Overview Energy

By Micah Maidenberg

Meta Platforms wants to get some of its solar power from space.

The Facebook parent has agreed to purchase up to a gigawatt of solar power from Overview Energy, a startup that aims to deploy satellites capable of providing power to customers on Earth's surface.

Overview is working toward an in-space demonstration in 2028, said Chief Executive Marc Berte, and targets commercial service two years after that.

The deal is a sign of how technology giants are trying to identify new power-supply options that could support their ambitious goals for artificial intelligence. Terms of the agreement weren't disclosed.

The idea of orbital solar-power systems has been around for decades, discussed in the pages of an Isaac Asimov science fiction story published in 1941 and explored at universities and government research laboratories.

Numerous technical and cost hurdles have made it challenging to develop orbital solar-power systems to compete with or complement traditional energy sources. Overview, as well as startups Star Catcher Industries and Aetherflux, are now trying to bring the concept to reality.

Overview plans to deploy satellites to geosynchronous orbit, more than 22,000 miles from the planet. There, they would collect sunlight and beam it back to solar installations on the ground.

Transmitting solar power from satellites would get around challenges that solar farms face on the ground, including night hours, Berte said in an interview. The ability to deliver power to solar infrastructure from space when those facilities need energy would allow developers to avoid overbuilding and save on capital investments, he said.

Overview is currently developing the satellites along with production lines to manufacture them, Berte said.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2026 06:14 ET (10:14 GMT)