Key facts
- BloombergNEF said planned AI datacentres carry proposals for 181GW of on-site gas-fired capacity, almost four times Great Britain's peak demand.
- BNEF said the planned US on-site gas plants would emit about 345 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent a year if built.
- BNEF's Mark Daly said developers call the gas supply temporary, but economics could encourage continued generation once online.
- Future Energy Networks said UK planned datacentres made more than 100 gas connection inquiries in 2024-5.
- Wapseys Wood in Buckinghamshire and Quest Park in Bedfordshire are seeking their own on-site gas-fired power stations.
- BNEF projected AI datacentre electricity demand would almost quadruple to 2,354 terawatt-hours by 2035, 7% of global demand.
Developers of AI datacentres have proposed building on-site gas-fired power stations on a large scale to meet their electricity needs, according to research by BloombergNEF published on November 11, 2026. The findings cover planned datacentres across the US, the UK and mainland Europe, where proposals for on-site fossil fuel plants would create 181GW of gas-fired capacity because of delays connecting to national grids. BNEF said that figure is almost four times the total peak electricity demand of Great Britain.
The research said the "speed to power" approach, if the planned rollout happens, would emit about 345 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year in the US, where 90% of on-site gas-fired power stations are planned. BNEF said that is equivalent to annual greenhouse gas emissions from about 72.8 million fossil fuel cars. The report was published as global leaders gathered in Turkey for the 31st UN climate summit, where increasing electrification is a central part of discussions. A number of key European leaders, including from France and Germany, will not be at Cop31 and will instead attend the EU's first dedicated AI summit in Dublin on Friday.
Mark Daly, head of datacentres and emerging tech at BloombergNEF, said: "The extraordinary economics around AI are making speed to power one of the most important priorities for defining constraints on datacentre developers." He said the climate outcome would depend on how much electricity the facilities use, how quickly grids connect them and whether power systems add cleaner generation alongside that demand.
BNEF projected that AI datacentre electricity demand would almost quadruple to 2,354 terawatt-hours by 2035, equivalent to 7% of global electricity demand. Daly said developers of the future datacentres claim their gas-fired supplies would be temporary while they wait for grid connections, but once online the economics could encourage them to continue generating energy, creating a longer-term fossil-fuel lock-in risk. The report said connecting new datacentres to the grid was the more sustainable option and that faster grid connections were crucial to limiting emissions impacts.
In the UK, planned datacentres made more than 100 inquiries in 2024-5 to connect to gas because of delays securing access to the electricity grid, according to Future Energy Networks, the representative body for the UK gas networks. Wapseys Wood in Buckinghamshire and Quest Park in Bedfordshire are seeking to build their own on-site gas-fired power stations because of the long wait for a grid connection. The datacentres are among the first to be fast-tracked through the government's nationally significant infrastructure project regime, which allows developers to deliver major infrastructure while bypassing locally elected planning authorities.
Use of on-site fossil fuel generation is likely to be repeated at many more UK sites after the chancellor, John Healey, gave the green light for datacentres to build and run temporary on-site fossil fuel power stations while they wait for grid connections, as part of a so-called datacentre covenant. Oliver Hayes, head of policy and campaigns at Global Action Plan, said: "Private gas power stations for datacentres should be a red line for any government serious about climate action, so it's shocking to see the chancellor give them his explicit backing." He added that once built, the stations would lock in high emissions for years.