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Facebook’s 2020 Georgia Data Center Expansion: 1.5 Million More Square Feet

Facebook’s 2020 plan added three buildings and 1.5 million square feet to its Newton County campus. The separate 2026 Social Circle proposal is not identified as a Meta project.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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Facebook’s September 2020 expansion plan added three buildings and 1.5 million square feet to its Newton County, Georgia, data-center campus. With the two-building first phase at about 1 million square feet, the planned campus would total roughly 2.5 million square feet, with $1 billion in planned investment. The site is now known as Meta’s Stanton Springs Data Center.

How large was the planned expansion?

Data Center Knowledge reported on September 17, 2020, that Facebook planned a second phase at its Newton campus. The scale reported at the time was:

Phase Buildings Approximate floor area
First phase 2 About 1 million square feet
Announced expansion 3 1.5 million square feet
Planned campus total 5 About 2.5 million square feet

The $1 billion figure was the planned investment in the campus reported with the 2020 expansion announcement; it should not be read as a current cost estimate or a figure for the three new buildings alone. The source described an expansion plan, not a later confirmation of its completion or present operating status.

Where is Meta’s Stanton Springs data center?

Meta identifies the facility as the Stanton Springs Data Center in Newton County, Georgia, near Social Circle. Meta’s announcement says the location was selected in part for access to renewable energy, engineering and construction workers, and community partners. The campus was formerly called the Newton Data Center.

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What was said about energy?

Solar projects cited in 2020

The 2020 expansion report said Facebook had announced six regional solar projects totaling 435 megawatts, which were expected to add renewable energy to the local grid. That number describes the projects’ reported contribution to the grid, not the data center’s power demand or a stated amount of electricity delivered directly to the campus.

Meta’s later clean-energy description

Meta’s Stanton Springs fact sheet describes work with Walton Electric Membership Corporation and Silicon Ranch toward a goal of 100% clean and renewable energy for the facility, including support for 10 new Georgia solar projects. This is a later description than the 2020 report’s six projects; the two accounts use different counts, and the available information does not establish how the project lists overlap. Neither source gives the campus’s power capacity or actual electricity consumption.

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What is known about water use at Stanton Springs?

In an April 2026 operational account, Meta described cooling that it says is significantly more water efficient than industry standard, multiple reuse of water before discharge, rainwater capture and infiltration, native landscaping where possible, and no groundwater use. Meta did not state a site-wide water-consumption figure in that account.

Newton County Water and Sewerage Authority Executive Director Mike Hopkins said: “We have service agreements with Meta and they have honored those service agreements. Meta operates well within the bounds of its agreed allocation, with no impact on the county’s groundwater supply.” Meta says the service agreements are based on water analysis and modeling. These statements concern Stanton Springs; they do not establish water use for a separate proposed data-center project.

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Is the Social Circle proposal the same project?

No connection to Meta has been established in the available county statement. Newton County’s September 23, 2026 statement concerns a Social Circle annexation request for a technology campus that would include a data center. The county objected to infrastructure burdens and described arbitration after the city proceeded with annexation, but the statement does not name the applicant as Meta. It should not be conflated with Facebook’s 2020 Stanton Springs expansion.

The county statement also does not provide that proposed campus’s electricity demand or water use. Without a source identifying the applicant and providing those figures, neither can be attributed to Meta or reliably quantified here.

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