Data center demand drives 66% surge in natural gas power plant costs

· ai · Source ↗

TLDR

  • Natural gas power plant costs jumped 66% in two years, from under $1,500/kW in 2023 to $2,157/kW in 2024, driven by data center electricity demand.

Key Facts

  • Build time for new combined cycle gas turbine plants has increased 23% alongside the cost spike.
  • Gas turbine equipment prices are expected to reach 195% above 2019 levels by end of 2025; waitlists stretch into the early 2030s.
  • Data center electricity demand is projected to grow from 40 GW today to 106 GW by 2035, a 2.7x increase.
  • Planned data centers average over 100 MW; today only 10% of facilities exceed 50 MW.

Why It Matters

  • The gas turbine supply crunch means higher costs and longer timelines for both tech companies and utilities pursuing new natural gas capacity.
  • Google is pursuing an alternative path using renewables and long-duration iron-air batteries, which have continued to fall in price unlike gas turbines.

Tim De Chant, TechCrunch · 2026-04-27 · Read the original

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