The expansion of AI computing power is pushing U.S. data centers to higher levels of energy consumption. Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts that by 2035, natural gas usage at these facilities could exceed the current combined totals of Germany and Japan, leading to rising energy prices and increased emissions pressure.
Daily natural gas consumption in 2035 could reach 18 billion cubic feet.
The report, citing the latest forecast from BloombergNEF, states that over the next decade, data centers will become the second-largest driver of U.S. natural gas demand growth, after liquefied natural gas exports. By 2035, natural gas consumption by data centers could reach approximately 18 billion cubic feet per day.
This figure is nearly double the institution’s prediction from nine months ago. The new forecast takes into account that not all announced data center projects will ultimately be completed.
Tech company advances construction of its own gas power plant
In recent months, Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have all proposed plans to build new natural gas power plants, with some projects bypassing the public grid to directly supply data centers. BloombergNEF estimates that such self-powered projects will consume between 2.9 and 3.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2035.
- The self-provided power project could consume between 2.9 and 3.4 billion cubic feet of gas per day.
- The predicted total daily gas consumption for the data center is approximately 18 billion cubic feet.
- Grid-connected data centers will add approximately 15 billion cubic feet of daily demand.
The larger increase comes from the grid side.
However, the greater demand growth still comes from data centers connected to the public grid. Projections indicate that by the mid-point of the next decade, this additional load will drive the U.S. power industry to require an extra approximately 15 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.
According to BloombergNEF, this increase is about five times the combined demand growth of all other grid-connected industries during the same period.
Prices and emission pressures rise in tandem
If the above requirements are fulfilled, U.S. natural gas prices could face upward pressure. The report notes that many data center investments have been made under the assumption that natural gas prices will remain low, but as data center expansion and liquefied natural gas exports grow, the risk of supply-demand tightness is increasing.
According to data from the International Energy Agency, burning one cubic foot of natural gas across the entire lifecycle—including extraction, processing, and transportation—emits approximately 60 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent. Based on this metric, the additional natural gas demand from data centers could result in around 1 million tons of extra greenhouse gas emissions per day, equivalent to about 12% of the United States' current total greenhouse gas emissions.