Datacentre Developers Plan 181GW of On-Site Gas Power

By Daniel Okafor

Datacentre developers have announced 181 gigawatts of on-site gas-fired generation across the US, UK and mainland Europe. That is almost four times Great Britain's total peak electricity demand. BloombergNEF published the figure on November 11, 2026, as leaders gathered for the COP31 climate summit in Turkey. More than 90% of the proposed capacity sits in the US.

The report, commissioned by Bloomberg Philanthropies, tallies announcements, not construction forecasts. The projects "vary widely in maturity and timing," BNEF says, and the 181GW figure should be read as an indication of potential scale.

What does the extra gas mean for emissions?

The numbers are large. If every proposed US plant were built and ran under BNEF's modeling assumptions, annual emissions would hit roughly 345 million metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent. That is about 152 million tonnes more than supplying the same datacentre capacity with average US grid electricity. The incremental amount equals roughly 10% of US power-sector emissions in 2025.

The report also projects total datacentre electricity demand will nearly quadruple to 2,354 terawatt-hours by 2035. That would reach 7% of global electricity consumption. AI facilities are a subset of the total; the projection covers datacentres overall.

Why are developers building their own power?

The mechanism is simple: grid queues are slow, and AI money is fast. Mark Daly, BNEF's head of datacentres and emerging tech, attributes the rush to on-site generation to "the extraordinary economics around AI", which makes speed to power "one of the most important priorities for defining constraints on datacentre developers". Grid connection queues in the US and Europe are delaying large loads, while the financial rewards for bringing computing capacity online quickly push developers toward their own gas supply as a bridge.

The UK shows the pattern up close. Planned datacentres made more than 100 inquiries about gas connections in 2024-25, according to Future Energy Networks, the gas network industry body. Two early projects illustrate the trend:

• Wapseys Wood in Buckinghamshire and Quest Park in Bedfordshire are both seeking to build on-site gas plants after long waits for grid connections.
• Both have been fast-tracked through the government's nationally significant infrastructure project regime, which bypasses locally elected planning authorities.

Are the gas plants really temporary?

Developers say yes. BNEF is not convinced. "Once they are online, the economics could encourage them to continue generating energy, creating a longer-term fossil-fuel lock-in risk beyond the annual emissions," the report states.

Daly told the Guardian: "The climate outcome will depend not only on how much electricity these facilities use, but on how quickly grids can connect them and whether power systems add cleaner generation alongside that demand."

Critics go further. Oliver Hayes, head of policy and campaigns at Global Action Plan, called private gas power stations for datacentres "a red line for any government serious about climate action". He added: "no one seriously believes these gas power stations will be temporary – once they're built, they'll lock in high emissions for years."

What has the UK government done?

The UK government published the Data Centre Covenant, which commits it to "develop a tightly controlled framework to permit on site generation until a grid connection can be secured". The covenant restricts this to "exceptionally strategic projects" where other measures cannot secure sufficient capacity in time, subject to conditions including energy security. Eligibility criteria and the definition of "strategic" datacentres are to be set later.

What remains uncertain?

Plenty. The 181GW figure is an inventory of announcements, not a construction forecast. BNEF says evidence on which grid-connection policies work best is currently limited. The report reviews approaches across 17 markets, including flexible connections, clean-power procurement and special zones, but cannot yet say which will prove most effective at cutting both waiting times and emissions.

The calculus flips in some emerging markets. In India, Indonesia and Malaysia, where grids remain coal-heavy, BNEF finds grid-connected datacentres can sometimes be worse for emissions than on-site gas. New clean generation must arrive alongside new demand, the report argues.

The covenant's framework for temporary generation remains undetailed. Whether the "tightly controlled" conditions will be enforced, and whether developers will voluntarily retire gas plants once grid power arrives, are open questions.