Why AI Data Centers Could Soon Use a Huge Amount of Natural Gas
U.S. data centers, the big buildings that power AI and the internet, could burn about 18 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2035. That is more than Germany and Japan use combined.
That number comes from a BloombergNEF report published on Sept. 15, 2026, as described by TechCrunch. It counts gas burned in power plants that feed data centers through the grid, plus gas burned on site to make power next to the servers.
Data centers would be the second-biggest reason U.S. gas demand grows over the next ten years, after LNG exports. LNG is gas chilled to a liquid so it can be shipped to other countries. The new forecast is almost double what BloombergNEF expected nine months earlier, because projects are being built faster and more projects are waiting in line for a grid hookup.
The 18 billion total splits in two. Sites that make their own power with turbines or fuel cells inside the fence are expected to use 2.9 to 3.4 billion cubic feet per day by 2035. Data centers that plug into the public grid are expected to cause another 15 billion cubic feet per day of gas use by power plants by the middle of the next decade.
Growth from grid-plugged data centers through 2035 is five times growth from all other grid users combined.
Data centers will use about 20% of U.S. electricity in 2035, or about one in five units, up from 5.9% today, according to Bloomberg reporting in July, cited via Bloomberg. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts the fastest four-year growth in U.S. power demand since 2000, driven by data centers, as noted by the EIA. Through 2050, the agency expects use to keep rising 0.9% to 1.6% per year, with servers a big reason.
EIA analysts also expect effects on buildings. By 2050, as much as 7% of all U.S. commercial floorspace, meaning offices, stores and other business buildings, requires extra energy to support data center demand across most building types.
World numbers put the U.S. load in context. Global data centers could use close to 1,050 TWh of energy by 2026, a very large unit for electricity, according to an estimate cited by Brookings. Their share of world electricity is expected to stay under 2% in 2035, according to the IEA. Gas and coal together are expected to supply over 40% of the extra electricity data centres need until 2030, with gas growing by 175 TWh.
Onsite gas is already part of that picture. Around 15-27 GW of onsite gas power, a measure of power output, may run data centres by 2030, mostly in the United States. The U.S. path to 2.9 to 3.4 billion cubic feet per day for onsite projects by 2035 continues that trend and means steady orders for medium-frame turbines, reciprocating engines and related connection equipment. Those are types of engines that make electricity on site.
On the supply side, Japanese trading house Mitsui is looking to invest in LNG projects across the Middle East, the U.S. and Australia to meet rising power demand from data centers, according to Reuters. On Aug. 28, 2026, Cheniere Energy finished its Corpus Christi Liquefaction Stage 3 Project in Texas and took control of the seventh and last LNG train in that project, a unit that cools gas to liquid for shipment.
The added gas use from data centers will create 1 million metric tons more greenhouse gas pollution each day.
The broader context here is how fast forecasts are changing, not the direction. Forecasters have raised data center estimates for three years, but almost doubling in nine months suggests requests for grid connections and plans for onsite power are moving faster than utility integrated resource plans, the long-range supply plans utilities file. For operators, gas gives power on demand, familiar permits and delivery times that fit plans to turn power on in 2027 to 2029.
In my view, the real squeeze is not gas versus wind and solar. It is ready power versus wait time. Grid growth at five times all other sectors will strain transformer supply, turbine backlogs and short pipelines to sites at the same time. Making power onsite avoids the grid wait but moves pollution accounting and air permits to the data center site.
Worth flagging for company tech planners, access to power is becoming a top reason for picking a site, along with internet cables, water and taxes. Deals that lock in electricity and gas for 10 to 15 years will decide where AI work runs, and how fast and costly it is. I covered similar site picking during the cloud buildout, when tax and fiber maps picked regions, and power maps now pull the same way.
Looking further out, technology tends to do more useful work with less energy over time, and grids should get cleaner as they absorb this load. The next few years, though, will run largely on gas.
