THE CRUNCH
Developers of AI datacentres across the US, the UK and mainland Europe have proposals to build gas-fired power stations on-site, adding up to 181GW of capacity, according to research reported by the Guardian. The stated driver is delay: waiting to connect to national grids is slow enough that some operators would rather generate their own electricity from fossil fuels.
To put the scale in perspective, 181GW is almost four times the total peak electricity demand of Great Britain. The research frames the plans as a climate concern, since on-site gas plants would add fossil fuel generation to serve computing demand.