The global race for supremacy in the field of artificial intelligence is taking on frightening physical dimensions. According to new analyses, by 2035, US data centers will become energy monsters, their natural gas consumption will surpass the combined consumption of leading world economies such as Germany and Japan. Within the next decade, these server complexes are emerging as the second largest engine for growth in global demand for blue fuel, second only to exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
A Bloomberg report reveals a dramatic shift in forecasts: data processing facilities are expected to gobble up nearly 500 million cubic meters of gas per day. This amount is a double increase compared to estimates made just nine months ago, which shows how exponentially the need for computing power is growing.
In search of guaranteed stability, technology giants Microsoft, Google and Amazon have already taken radical steps. The three companies have announced large-scale projects to build their own, independent from the general grid gas power plants, located right next to their server parks. By 2035, these local capacities will burn between 82 and 96 million cubic meters of gas per day.
Despite their impressive scale, independent plants are just a drop in the ocean. The main pressure will fall on the standard energy grid. Forecasts indicate that data centers connected to the national system will require an additional 425 million cubic meters of natural gas per day – a growth rate that exceeds five times the expected increase in demand from all other industrial and residential users combined.
Such consumption threatens to explode the market. The rapid expansion of the digital sector has been possible largely thanks to the extremely favorable prices of the blue fuel in recent years. However, experts warn that the collision between the artificial intelligence boom and record LNG exports will inevitably push prices up. And while the financial resources of Big Tech giants allow them to bear higher bills, ordinary end users of utility services are threatened by a serious price shock.
In parallel with the economic risks, the environmental consequences also cast a shadow. Data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show that the combustion, extraction and transportation of one cubic meter of natural gas releases about 2,100 grams of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The additional appetite of data centers will generate over 1 million tons of greenhouse emissions every day – a volume that is equivalent to nearly 12% of the entire carbon footprint of the United States today.