New trend: Gas power plants being built exclusively for data centers

Data centers in Texas are building their own gas power plants that bypass the electrical grid, representing a new trend in powering data centers.

One plant planned in a rural area would be big enough to power a major city, with 1,200 megawatts of capacity fueled by West Texas shale gas. The plant will only supply a new data center, and possibly other large data centers that were recently proposed.

The concept of dedicated gas-fueled power plants is a departure from existing practice and has some environmentalists concerned. Several other proposed data center projects in Texas may construct their own gas-powered plants, as a race to open energy-hungry data centers has led many developers to plan their own rather than wait to connect to the public grid. This build-out could lock in strong gas demand for many years.

In recent years, there was a widespread assumption that new power generation for digital infrastructure would be facilitated by emissions-free energy sources like wind, solar, and battery power. That notion is challenged by the drive to build quickly.