UK data centers are turning to gas for electricity generation
What's the story
More than 100 new data centers in the UK are planning to use gas as a source of electricity generation, some even on a permanent basis. The move has been attributed to the long wait for connection to the National Grid. "There's 100GW of datacentre projects in the queue," Stuart Okin, Ofgem's Director of cyber regulation and AI, said at All-Energy conference.
Rising requests
Gas connections for data centers
Silvia Simon, the head of research at Future Energy Networks, revealed that her organization has received over 100 requests for gas connections from data center operators in the last two years. These requests account for more than 15 terawatt hours of energy annually, enough to power London for about four and a half months. "Gas networks are seeing a lot of interest from datacentre developers looking to secure a gas connection," Simon said.
International impact
Gas-powered data centers in US
The global AI boom has led to massive investments from governments and tech giants. In the US, many of these projects depend on gas-fired generation. Activists in Tennessee have fought Elon Musk's xAI for illegally operating methane-powered generators, endangering public health. Eleven US data centers built for Meta, OpenAI, Microsoft, and xAI are expected to emit more carbon than Morocco due to off-grid gas generators constructed by the developers themselves.
Shift in strategy
Energy consultant on gas power reliance
An energy consultant with years of experience in the sector has observed a growing trend of data center projects relying on gas power. "Using gas networks was previously avoided due to carbon, permitting, and land-take impacts, and has typically only been considered as a temporary fix," he said. But developers are now increasingly turning to fossil fuels, "in some cases requesting over 100MW of gas power on a permanent basis."
Climate concerns
Julian Leslie on impact of gas buildout
Julian Leslie, the Director of strategic planning at the UK's National Energy System Operator (Neso), warned that this gas buildout could complicate Britain's climate goals. "The target was to get less than 5% of unabated gas supplying electricity in the system," he said. "But obviously if we've got datacentres not connected to electricity but powered by unabated gas then it does raise an interesting question about what that means for the Clean Power 2030 target."