from all sources combined.
Nearly 100 gigawatts ((100,000 MW -progree)) of natural-gas fired power are currently in development throughout the US solely to power data centers
This is a horrendous number. Catastrophic.
For scale,
Hunter posted at about noon Pacific Time Thursday that California is using 27,000 MW of power (from all sources) at the moment. California is the 4th largest economy in the world, larger than Japan's.
In 2024, California had an in-state electric power generating capacity from all sources of 89,000 MW. --
https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/electric-generation-capacity-and-energy
About 39,000 of that is from fossil fuel (38,576 MW of natural gas and 351 MW of oil)
https://www.wired.com/story/a-new-google-funded-data-center-will-be-powered-by-a-massive-gas-plant/
As data center developers face lengthy wait times to connect to electricity grids and rising concerns over consumer electric bills, they’re increasingly turning to building their own energy, or what’s known as behind-the-meter power. For these projects, gas is king; data centers are now driving a US boom in natural gas. Nearly 100 gigawatts ((100,000 MW -progree)) of natural-gas fired power are currently in development throughout the US solely to power data centers, according to research ( https://www.wired.com/story/data-centers-are-driving-a-us-gas-boom/ ) published by the nonprofit Global Energy Monitor in January.
Per the Global Energy Monitor research, there are at least 15 projects in development across the US that are larger than the Goodnight campus. Several of these projects have only just been announced or are still in the development phase, and have not yet filed air permits detailing just how much greenhouse gases they will emit. But the numbers that have been made public are jaw-dropping: . . . ((a couple examples given -progree))
Emphasis added by Progree
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Another equivalence that might be more relatable --
The amount of natural-gas-fired generation in development just to power near-future U.S. data centers is equivalent, in greenhouse gas emissions, to adding 100 MILLION ADDITIONAL gasoline-fueled cars to the roads. All that mostly just for AI and cryptocurrency mining.
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