Information facilities have induced the demand for gas-fired energy within the US to blow up over the previous two years, in line with new analysis launched Wednesday. Greater than a 3rd of this new demand, the analysis discovered, is explicitly linked to gas projects that may energy data centers—the equal of vitality that may energy tens of hundreds of thousands of US properties.
The findings from International Power Monitor, a San Francisco–primarily based nonprofit that tracks oil and fuel developments, come because the Trump administration is each encouraging knowledge heart build-out and disposing of air pollution rules on energy crops and oil and fuel extraction. They may even nearly definitely imply a rise in US greenhouse fuel emissions, even when among the initiatives tracked by International Power Monitor by no means get constructed.
“The implications are enormous while you’re speaking about this dimension of a build-out,” says Jonathan Banks, a senior local weather adviser at Clear Air Activity Drive, a nonprofit that works to scale back emissions. (Clear Air Activity Drive was not concerned within the International Power Monitor analysis.)
Constructing all of the gas-fired energy infrastructure that was in improvement on the finish of final yr may enhance the US fuel fleet by practically 50 %, in line with International Power Monitor’s findings. The US currently has round 565 gigawatts of gas-fired energy on the grid. If all of the initiatives within the improvement pipeline are constructed, it might add nearly 252 gigawatts of fuel energy to the US fleet. (Estimates differ, however 1 gigawatt can energy as much as 1,000,000 properties, relying on the vitality use of the area.)
Information facilities have helped to almost triple the demand for gas-fired energy within the US over the previous two years. When International Power Monitor final launched its tracker, in early 2024, it logged round 85 gigawatts of gas-fired energy within the improvement pipeline within the US. Simply over 4 gigawatts of that improvement had been explicitly earmarked for knowledge facilities. However in 2025, greater than 97 gigawatts of demand tracked had been from initiatives that will likely be used to energy knowledge facilities—nearly 25 occasions increased than the 2024 figures.
“A couple of yr and a half in the past, we began to see this enhance in proposals for knowledge facilities particularly,” says Jenny Martos, a analysis analyst at International Power Monitor who labored on the report.
To place collectively the analysis, International Power Monitor reviewed publicly obtainable sources of knowledge on fuel energy build-outs within the pipeline. These embrace state-level regulatory filings, air high quality permits, and public bulletins from corporations. (Martos says that the group in contrast its findings with industry-held knowledge as a benchmark.)
As the information heart build-out continues throughout the nation, builders are scrambling to safe energy from any and all sources—and utilities are racing to fulfill the projected demand. This has meant that dirtier energy sources are getting a second shot at staying on-line: coal-fired energy crops across the nation have not too long ago been given extensions on their retirement dates, boosted by coal-friendly insurance policies from the Trump administration.
Pure fuel is a a lot cleaner energy possibility than coal-fired energy, however fuel crops do launch CO2 emissions. About 35 percent of US energy-related CO2 emissions in 2022 got here from burning pure fuel.
“Gasoline is cleaner when burnt than coal, however while you’re speaking about this a lot fuel, you are speaking about a variety of CO2 related to it, too,” says Banks.
A bigger concern with pure fuel is methane leaks through the extraction course of. Methane stays for a shorter time period within the ambiance than CO2, however it’s 80 times more potent over a 20 year period. Local weather scientists say that lowering methane emissions over the shorter time period is essential to controlling local weather change in the long term. It’s estimated that oil and fuel manufacturing accounts for a 3rd of all international methane leaks; the US is the largest producer of natural gas in the world.
