Large Data Center Buildout -- An Update -- RBN Energy -- April 8, 2025

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RBN Energy: tech giants' big-money plans for data centers hinge on gas-fired power. Archived. Below is abbreviated summary.

Growing power demand for data centers has been one of the biggest stories in energy markets over the past year, with natural gas-fired power plants emerging as the primary choice for developers seeking to provide the 24/7 power these massive, energy-intensive sites require. That has led many energy firms to unveil plans to sell power directly to data centers but many tech giants have also announced their own deals. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll dive into recent announcements from firms like Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, which intend to collectively spend about $300 billion this year alone to boost their AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities.

Apple

Apple announced on February 25 that it will spend more than $500 billion...

NRG Energy, GE Vernova and Kiewit

NRG Energy and GE Vernova, along with The Industrial Company (TIC), a subsidiary of Kiewit Corp., announced a venture on February 26 that aims to advance four projects that will generate more than 5 gigawatts (GW) of gas-fired power to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the PJM Interconnection, which serves all or part of 13 states plus the District of Columbia. No location was listed for where the plants would be constructed.

Meta and Entergy Louisiana

Meta announced in November 2024 that it will build a 4-million-square-foot data center (see Figure 2 below) — the company’s largest — at a 1,400-acre site in Richland Parish, LA. Entergy Louisiana, an investor-owned utility, or IOU, said that to support the project it will build three gas-fired combined-cycle plants with a combined capacity of 2,260 MW — two of them in Richland Parish — as well as other infrastructure, including new transmission lines and substations.

Energy Transfer and Cloudburst

Energy Transfer in February entered a 10-year agreement to provide up to 450,000 MMBtu/d (~450 MMcf/d) of firm natural gas supply to CloudBurst's Next-Gen Data Center campus near San Marcos, TX, which could start operations by Q3 2026. That’s enough gas to generate approximately 1,200 MW of behind-the-meter power, Energy Transfer executives said during the company’s Q4 earnings call. (The 1,200 MW may be a conservative number — in theory, it could generate even more).

Microsoft and WE Energies

Microsoft announced in February it is developing a $3.3 billion data center hub near Milwaukee, WI. Microsoft broke ground on the first plot of land last year and has approval for a 1,000-acre expansion. Bloomberg also reported that Microsoft intends to put the expansion on hold. Microsoft has acknowledged the need for flexibility in its data center plans but has not discussed specific projects. WE Energies, a Wisconsin IOU, has proposed a $2 billion investment in new natural gas infrastructure with more than 1 GW capacity to serve Microsoft’s AI operations. 

WE Energies wanted to start construction on a $300-million, 128-MW natural gas-powered facility in Paris, a town south of Milwaukee in Kenosha County, in Q1 2025, with construction to be completed by July 2026. However, there has been community pushback because the facility could emit more than 590,000 tons of CO₂ annually and the project does not include CCS capabilities. WE Energies said it is considering other locations.

Amazon and Entergy Mississippi

Amazon’s data center expansion in Mississippi has prompted Entergy Mississippi to begin construction on a $1.2 billion natural gas plant in Greenville, a town along the Mississippi River in Washington County.

Vantage and VoltaGrid Partnership

Hyperscale developer Vantage Data Centers will partner with onsite power generation supplier VoltaGrid to provide more than 1 GW of gas-fired microgrid power at new facilities across North America. Vantage is one of the leading providers of wholesale data center infrastructure and has accounted for building out or starting 35 campuses globally, with more than 2.6 GW in capacity.