Data Hunger of AI Drives UK Data Centers Toward Gas Connection
Data centers in the United Kingdom are advocating for gas due to slow network connections, causing a collision between climate goals and location policies.
Five planned data centers in southern England have made formal requests to National Gas for connections to the national gas grid. According to the operator of the UK gas transmission lines, owned by Macquarie, developers are planning to build their own gas-fired power plants to secure energy in the short term due to years-long waiting times for a power grid connection. The demand amounts to around 2.5 gigawatts - enough to supply several million households with electricity.
The background is the rapidly increasing electricity demand of data centers that operate with Nvidia chips for artificial intelligence and require significantly more energy than traditional cloud systems. Delayed grid connections and high electricity prices additionally burden the UK location. Industry representatives warn that some projects may not be connected to the power grid until 2037. For investors, gas is therefore an interim solution to bring facilities online faster and later use them as a reserve.
The step carries political explosiveness: While the government is pushing the expansion of AI infrastructure as part of its "decade of national renewal," the interim solution with gas power plants threatens to increase CO₂ emissions. Already, a global trend is emerging: According to Global Energy Monitor, over 85 gas power plants are being built for the operation of data centers. Siemens Energy points to record orders for turbines from the USA, where operators are also relying on gas.
A prominent example is Elon Musk's "Colossus" center in Memphis, which initially ran on gas turbines before being connected to the power grid. Similar models could now also become popular in the UK—a development that reveals the contradiction between climate goals and location policy.
