A new report released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) on November 11 predicts that global data center electricity consumption will increase to 2,354 terawatt-hours by 2035, nearly four times the current level, accounting for 7% of global electricity consumption. To address grid connection delays and obtain power supply capacity as quickly as possible, more and more developers are considering building their own gas-fired power plants. BNEF tracked approximately 181 GW of announced gas-fired power projects planned to be integrated with data centers globally, with over 90% located in the United States. However, the maturity and construction timelines of these projects vary significantly, and 181 GW only represents the planned scale. BNEF further estimates that if all relevant gas-fired power plants in the United States were built and operated as assumed, they would generate approximately 345 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions annually, 152 million tons more than the average amount of electricity generated by the US grid. Data center construction is becoming a significant new driver of investment in gas-fired power generation in the United States.
