Researchers sound alarm as tech giants race to power massive data centers: 'I've never seen something quite this big before'

Jet turbines are being converted to help AI data centers burn gas for power, with the potential to create loads of pollution in the process, according to Fast Company. 

What's happening?

As electrical utilities falter under the immense demand of artificial intelligence data centers, AI companies are turning to gas turbine generators to meet their own energy needs privately. Some of these turbines are coming from the aerospace industry and generate pollution just as they would in the sky. 

One proposed data center facility in New Mexico is called Project Jupiter. Developers intend to generate 2,880 megawatts at the facility using "simple-cycle gas turbines" to power two "microgrids" at the projected $165 billion campus, as the report detailed. Local advocates are opposing the construction on environmental grounds. 

"I've never seen something quite this big before, dollar-wise, scale-wise," attorney Colin Cox said, per Fast Company. "To call this a microgrid defies common sense."

This is only one instance of a wider trend in reliance on gas power in AI. An xAI facility was recently found to be flouting pollution regulations to keep a gas-powered data center running, for example. 

Nationwide, planned expansions of data center infrastructure — many powered by gas — are having rapidly growing impacts. 

"This is a huge proposed build-out," Sierra Club director Cara Fogler said, per Fast Company. "Existing coal that's not coming offline and planned gas that's trying to come online are potentially boxing out clean energy."

Why are turbine generators significant?

Burning gas is a primary contributor to atmospheric pollution, which traps heat and exacerbates destructive weather patterns. These can include floods, droughts, and storms, which incur steep costs on property owners. 

The environmental footprint of AI data centers is now well-documented. As energy demand increases, the companies behind AI lean on dirty sources such as gas and coal to keep things running. This ties every AI query made with their technology to more pollution. 

Tech giants such as Meta, Microsoft, and Google have turned to nuclear power to curb some of the ecological costs, though rollouts are generally years, if not decades, away. 

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What's being done about gas usage in AI?

The low cost of solar and wind power remains highly competitive, but their share of the power supply for data centers remains relatively low compared with natural gas.

Until renewable energy solutions for AI become widespread, cutting use of such services and divesting from AI companies are among the biggest ways individuals can disconnect from related pollution. 

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