AI data centers drive US private gas plant boom

US technology companies are increasingly planning private gas-fired power plants to supply AI data centers, with research firm Cleanview identifying around 60 planned sites with a combined 97 gigawatts of behind-the-meter generation into the early 2030s.

Cleanview said the total is roughly comparable to Mexico’s installed power capacity. It said the climate impact would depend on how many plants are built, turbine efficiency and how often they run, but that even conservative assumptions put potential emissions above 200 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

A Texas gas plant planned to power Amazon data centers is the latest addition to the tally. The plant received air pollution permits in January, Amazon received construction permits last week, satellite imagery showed clearing at the site named in permit records, and Cleanview said it confirmed the Amazon link directly. A previously published account said the Pecos County project was being developed by Pacifico Energy and that permits showed 7.65 gigawatts of generation and more than 30 million metric tonnes of permitted greenhouse gas emissions a year.

Amazon has said on-site generation would let it pay the full cost of operations without passing infrastructure costs to households. The company has also said it remains committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 and is exploring solar energy and battery storage at the Texas site.

Cleanview said around two gigawatts of behind-the-meter generation are online now, most of it linked to xAI. It said nearly every major cloud or AI company is pursuing such projects, including Meta, Microsoft and Oracle, while AI labs including OpenAI and Anthropic have signed leases for more than 10 gigawatts of behind-the-meter power.

The planned buildout is concentrated in Republican-leaning states, with Texas leading at more than 40 gigawatts announced, according to Cleanview. The NAACP has filed suit against xAI, accusing it of unlawful turbine operations linked to power for its Memphis data center.

Environmental groups warned that private gas and diesel generation can add local air pollution as well as greenhouse gases. John Rogers, associate director of energy analytics at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said relying on gas or diesel turbines for data centers would pump hazardous pollutants into local air while worsening climate change. Yuqi Zhu, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the plants face less public accountability.

The Trump administration has created a voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge, under which signatories promise not to pass data center costs on to residential consumers. Rachel Reolfi, a senior policy analyst at Atlas Public Policy, said data compiled by the group showed announced new fossil capacity for the grid rebounded after 2022 and that, in the first half of 2026, announced new fossil capacity was already higher than in the previous 10 years.