Entergy Louisiana plans to invest in modern, efficient generation facilities and robust transmission infrastructure to support the region and Meta’s data center, featuring a $10 billion investment in Richland Parish.
The project intends to regenerate Northeast Louisiana’s economy, creating jobs, strengthening infrastructure and driving significant economic growth in the region, based on this project and other following projects.
Meta’s data center will be built on the Franklin Farm mega site, a more than 1,400-acre certified site, in Richland Parish, Louisiana, having proximity to existing utility infrastructure and robust transportation routes. Entergy Louisiana marketed the site through its Site Selection Center and GoEntergy platforms, highlighting its potential for large-scale developments.
Meta has announced their significant investment and associated impacts for their new artificial intelligence-optimized data center.
During construction, Entergy Louisiana projects will provide economic benefits and create:
- 1,500 to 1,800 construction jobs for the new advanced generation units being constructed
- 3,500 to 5,000 construction jobs for substation and transmission investment
- 44 permanent jobs
Richland Parish will also benefit from this development. To support the Richland Parish Data Center, as well as broader economic development in the state and growing its customer base, Entergy Louisiana will:
- Build three combined-cycle combustion turbines with a combined capacity of 2,260 MW, two of which will be in Richland Parish
- Construct two Entergy-owned substations and six customer-owned substations
- Install nearly 100 miles of 500kV transmission lines and eight new 230kV transmission lines
- Upgrade existing infrastructure, including a substation near Sterlington
The new generators are expected to be operational between 2028 and 2029 depending on regulatory approval.
Revenue from Meta will offset the costs associated to make service available to the company’s data center and the region. Meta will also share in the future cost of providing service like other customers including Formula Rate Plan costs, securitized storm costs and resiliency costs, this is expected to reduce costs that existing customers would otherwise pay by more than $300 million.
Additionally, Meta will contribute to Entergy’s The Power to Care program, matching $1 million in shareholder contributions to assist older adults and individuals with disabilities in paying utility bills.
Initially, the new generators will support the ability to utilize 30% hydrogen co-firing and, through future upgrades, the ability to transition to 100% hydrogen and incorporate carbon capture and sequestration technology.
Meta will also help fund CCS technology at an Entergy power plant in Lake Charles as well as 1,500 MW of new solar and storage resources, supporting Entergy Louisiana’s efforts to add 3 GW of solar energy.
The companies will also explore nuclear energy as a future power supply option alongside renewable sources like solar and wind. The effort includes researching conventional nuclear technologies, supporting small modular reactors and potential upgrades to enhance the output of existing nuclear plants in Southeast Louisiana.
