US data center natural gas consumption could surpass Germany and Japan combined by 2035

Date:
Thu, 17 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Description:
America's data centers could consume as much natural gas per day as the
entire of Germany and Japan combined.

FULL STORY
New Bloomberg data has revealed that US data
center natural gas consumption could top the combined consumption of Germany and Japan combined by as soon as 2035.

In less than a decade, the report claims that America's gas consumption for data centers alone could reach 18 billion cubic feet per day. That's nearly double what the data previously predicted just nine months ago, indicative
not only of the growing data center footprint nationally but also the
mounting strain on the grid system.

Crucially, these latest figures assume that some of the upcoming and
announced projects may not even be built, so if every single project were to go ahead, consumption would reach even higher figures.

Consequently, the next decade will likely see data centers become the second-biggest source of US natural gas demand growth, second only to the country's LNG exports.

But with national energy generation and grids struggling to keep up with the growth, Bloomberg believes around 2.9 billion to 3.4 billion cubic feet per day could be attributed to on-site, self-generated energy. As a guide, that's around as much as the entire data center sector consumes today.

The true warning comes from that the remaining consumption, provided by the grid, could ultimately lead to higher gas prices over the next 10 years.
That, and the estimated 1 million metric tons of additional greenhouse gas emissions per day predicted by the data.

Importantly, BloombergNEF gas market analyst Henry Eaton stressed that these projections include "fairly large" error bars due to the sheer number of variables and unpredictability, meaning that actual consumption could be substantially higher (or lower).

More broadly, another recent study revealed that America's data centers could consume a combined 426 TWh by as soon as 2030, with Moody's analysts pushing the importance of both new energy generation but also transmission infrastructure to connect campuses and homes nationally with cleaner and more reliable energy.

Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/us-data-center-natural-gas-consumption-could-sur pass-germany-and-japan-combined-by-2035

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