A Swiss study found that between 2022 and 2025, new power capacity near US data centres was mostly renewables and batteries, with a much smaller gas share.
The usual story is that US data centres run on gas. A new study pours cold water on that idea by overlaying where data centres were built from 2022 to 2025 with where new power plants went up.
Cheap power pulls data centres in
Data centres cluster where electricity is cheap: Texas, Virginia, Ohio, Nevada.
Then the researchers looked at what new generating capacity appeared in those regions. The big add was solar, wind and battery storage; gas was a small slice.
Where data centres go, renewables grow faster
Compare regions with and without new data centres. In the data-centre regions, renewables and batteries grew clearly faster. Gas construction also picked up, but not as much as in regions without data centres.
The reason is simple: money talks. New renewables beat new gas plants on cost. Governments can push fossil fuels, but the market has its own direction.
Why it matters
Texans keep saying gas is king, but the numbers don't lie: data centres are quietly pushing clean energy forward. Next time someone blames AI's power appetite for rising emissions, ask where the electricity actually comes from.
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