Bit barns need a lot of power to operate and, as hyperscalers look for ways to generate it, they are adding more dirty energy in the form of new gas turbines. One estimate says that these new power sources could add another 44 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2030, equivalent to the annual emissions of 10 million private cars.

This figure comes from nonprofit social justice organization [1]Truthout , and highlights the extent of the extra greenhouse gas emissions that are set to be released in order to satisfy the compute requirements of the current AI craze, particularly in the US.

AI training has created an almost inexhaustible demand for compute, resulting in a [2]datacenter building boom to meet that requirement. This has knock-on effects on the energy grid, with extra infrastructure and generating capacity being required to service all those facilities: Deloitte Insights warned last year that power needed by datacenters in the US may be [3]more than 30 times greater in a decade .

[4]

Part of the problem, as The Register has covered before, is that the quickest way of adding capacity is via those gas turbine generators, so long as you can get the turbines and there is a gas pipeline nearby.

[5]

[6]

Demand is so high, there's now a shortage of gas turbine kit designed for power generation purposes, with the result that some datacenter operators have been [7]repurposing old aircraft engines to generate energy on-site.

Boom Supersonic, a company developing faster-than-sound passenger aircraft, has even spotted an opportunity and is now building [8]power turbines based on its Symphony supersonic engine , with neocloud operator Crusoe as its first customer for 29 turbines that it can deploy at datacenters around the US.

[9]

Meta is also [10]powering its facilities with on-site gas generators . Its Hyperion campus, in Louisiana, is expected to scale up to five gigawatts in capacity with Entergy commissioned to build three combined-cycle combustion turbine plants supplying 2.26 gigawatts of power.

Microsoft has said that renewables have an important role to play in the energy supply mix, at least for places where this makes sense – in states where there is plenty of sunshine or wind for electricity generation – but [11]still sees natural gas as the near-term solution to meeting much of its energy needs.

[12]Elon Musk's xAI to pull about half of its smog-belching turbines powering Colossus

[13]Grounded jet engines take off again as datacenter generators

[14]AI going critical: Hyundai to help build nuclear-powered datacenter in Texas

[15]SC25 gets heavy with mega power and cooling solutions

Analyst Gartner even advised that datacenter operators would not be able [16]to ensure they can keep the lights on without having their own on-site generating capacity, and in practice gas turbines will be the most likely solution, as energy specialist [17]Schneider Electric recommended.

All of this is in line with official US government policy, of course, so opposition from organizations like Truthout are unlikely to carry much weight. US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told a natural gas industry event last year that the real [18]existential threat facing the world is America losing the AI arms race, not climate change.

And it isn't just the US adding new natural gas generation, Truthout states, although America is the largest contributor. It says that projects adding up to more than 1,000 gigawatts of gas-fired power are now in development worldwide, representing a roughly 31 percent jump in just the last year.

[19]

And let's not forget coal either, which is experiencing a comeback thanks to the Trump administration. The spike in demand from datacenters is driving a [20]resurgence in coal-fired generation , which increased nearly 20 percent last year. The President also signed an [21]Executive Order this month directing military installations and defense facilities to sign long-term power purchase agreements with coal-fired energy production facilities. ®

Get our [22]Tech Resources



[1] https://truthout.org/articles/data-center-boom-is-fueling-an-expansion-of-natural-gas-projects/

[2] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/14/ai_investment/

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/26/us_datacenter_power_crunch/

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aZTzEOQwGnFUsOJROnhCOAAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aZTzEOQwGnFUsOJROnhCOAAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aZTzEOQwGnFUsOJROnhCOAAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/22/datacenter_jet_engines/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/10/boom_supersonic_datacenter_turbine/

[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aZTzEOQwGnFUsOJROnhCOAAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/19/meta_wholesale_leccy/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/13/microsoft_natural_gas_ai/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/08/xai_turbines_colossus/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/22/datacenter_jet_engines/

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/fermi_america_nuclear_datacenter/

[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/20/heavy_industry_invades_sc25/

[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/04/gartner_datacenter_power_emerging_technologies/

[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/25/schneider_exec_dc_power/

[18] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/12/fire_up_gas_turbines_ai_race/

[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aZTzEOQwGnFUsOJROnhCOAAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[20] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/10/datacenter_coal_power/

[21] https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-strengthens-united-states-national-defense-with-americas-beautiful-clean-coal-power-generation-fleet/

[22] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/