US data centers could consume about 18 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2035, more than Germany and Japan combined, according to a new BloombergNEF forecast. The estimate is nearly twice the organization’s projection from nine months earlier and accounts for the likelihood that some announced facilities will never be built.
On-site power projects announced by Meta, Microsoft, Google and Amazon are expected to use 2.9 billion to 3.4 billion cubic feet per day. Most growth would still come through the electricity grid: data centers could add 15 billion cubic feet of daily gas demand in the power sector, five times the projected growth from all other grid-connected sectors combined. After liquefied-natural-gas exports, data centers would become the second-largest source of US gas-demand growth over the decade.
The forecast has consequences beyond technology budgets. Analysts warn that simultaneous growth in exports and data-center generation could raise prices for utility customers. BloombergNEF estimates the additional gas demand would produce one million metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions per day, about 12% of current total US emissions, when extraction, processing and distribution are included. These are scenario-based projections rather than committed consumption. Completion rates, renewable deployment, grid upgrades and computing efficiency will determine how much demand actually materializes.