US data center boom faces $110 billion power buildout by 2030

The US data center boom will require $110 billion in new power generation through 2030, according to Moody’s Ratings, as artificial intelligence and cloud computing drive the country’s biggest expansion in electricity demand in decades.

The buildout is expected to add 45 gigawatts of capacity. More than 30 gigawatts will come from natural gas-fired plants, requiring about 4 billion cubic feet per day of additional gas supply. 

Solar and battery storage will provide much of the remaining capacity, while nuclear restarts will account for less than 5%.

Data centers are projected to consume 426 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2030, doubling their share of US power demand to 10%. 

The new plants alone could add $25 billion to $30 billion a year to electricity costs, although data center operators could fund up to $15 billion through behind-the-meter projects.

The expansion is colliding with grid constraints. Interconnection queues, transmission limits, permitting delays, and opposition to new generation are already slowing projects in major data center markets, including Northern Virginia and Texas.

Natural gas remains attractive because generators can be dispatched when needed, unlike wind and solar resources. Moody’s says the pace of data center development is increasingly outstripping the speed at which the grid can add generation, transmission, and interconnection capacity.