WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2026 — U.S. data centers could consume about 18 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2035, according to a BloombergNEF forecast. That figure is nearly double BloombergNEF’s forecast from nine months earlier.

BloombergNEF’s latest forecast includes announced data center projects even though some of those projects may not be completed.

By 2035, data centers are projected to be the second-largest driver of U.S. natural gas demand, behind liquefied natural gas exports. Some facilities would generate electricity onsite using natural gas, while others would draw power from gas-fired plants serving data centers through the public electricity grid.

Natural Gas Demand

U.S. data centers could consume natural gas in two ways. Some data centers would use onsite natural gas generators to produce electricity, while power plants would burn natural gas to produce electricity for data centers connected to the public grid.

BloombergNEF revised its natural gas demand forecast after raising its estimate of U.S. data center capacity. BloombergNEF expects 194 gigawatts of U.S. data center capacity to be online by 2035. The 194-gigawatt capacity estimate is 83% higher than BloombergNEF’s December 2025 estimate of U.S. data center capacity. BloombergNEF attributes the revised capacity estimate mainly to 101 gigawatts of announced U.S. data center capacity added to its project pipeline since December 2025.

Onsite Power Generation

Meta, Microsoft, Google and Amazon have announced plans to use natural gas-fired power generation at some data centers. The planned facilities would generate electricity at the data center instead of receiving all of their electricity from the public grid.

BloombergNEF projects that onsite generation projects could consume between 2.9 billion and 3.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2035. The projected 2.9 billion to 3.4 billion cubic feet per day is similar to the amount of natural gas currently burned to generate electricity for all U.S. data centers. Current natural gas consumption for U.S. data center electricity includes gas burned at power plants that generate electricity for grid-connected data centers.  

Grid Power Demand

Grid-connected data centers could add about 15 billion cubic feet per day to U.S. power-sector natural gas consumption by 2035. Power plants would burn additional natural gas to generate electricity for those data centers.

By 2035, grid-connected data centers are projected to account for about five times as much growth in natural gas demand as all other grid-connected sectors combined. The comparison measures additional natural gas demand from electricity generation for grid-connected data centers against additional natural gas demand from all other grid-connected sectors.

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Gas Prices and Emissions

Higher natural gas demand could lead to higher prices if U.S. production does not increase enough to meet consumption. Noreva analysts have said that data center demand and additional LNG exports could push U.S. natural gas prices higher. U.S. natural gas prices through 2035 will depend on U.S. production, LNG export volumes, electricity demand and the number of data centers that begin operating.

Higher natural gas consumption would also increase greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas production, processing, transportation and electricity generation. AI data centers require large amounts of electricity, and some of that electricity would come from natural gas-fired power plants or natural gas generators located at the data centers.