11 Gas-Powered AI Data Centers Could Emit More Greenhouse Gases Than Morocco

The dark side of AI -- shocking report reveals 11 planned AI data centers connected to OpenAI, Meta and Microsoft could produce more greenhouse gases than Morocco

* New AI data centers in the US could produce more emissions than an entire nation * 11 sites have the potential to emit 129 million tons of greenhouse gases per year * The future sustainability of AI remains unclear A report has found new AI data centers in the US could have the ability to produce more greenhouse gases than an entire nation, putting the technology under further scrutiny and raising more questions about just how sustainable it is. An investigation by Wired has revealed that 11 gas-powered AI data centers could generate more greenhouse gases than the whole of Morocco did in 2024, with a potential 129 million tons emitted per year from the sites. And it's not just one AI company that's being linked to these new data center campuses, with OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and xAI all mentioned in the report. Wired notes that the projects have either been announced, or are already under construction, as AI companies look to bypass the restrictions of the power grid in the US by building their own gas power stations for the sole intention of powering the data centers. This level of emissions could play a role in the ongoing battle with climate change. The construction of gas-powered stations could impact local communities, and the actions might lead AI users to question whether this is a technology they want to support. Analysis: AI can be great, but at what cost? There's no doubt AI can do some impressive things, such as solving a 12-year-old math problem, but it also has its fair share of critics. From hallucinating results and a perceived lack of quality in some circumstances, to well-documented sustainability problems and climate issues. The Wired investigation highlights that a natural gas project Microsoft is looking to purchase power from "could emit more than 11.5 million tons of greenhouse gases each year". That's more than Jamaica's yearly emissions. Meanwhile, xAI's (the firm behind Grok) gas turbines in Memphis, Tennessee and Southaven, Mississippi could each emit 6.4 million tons of CO2 equivalents per year. The list goes on, as AI data center projects in Texas, New Mexico, Ohio, Wisconsin, and more, for the likes of OpenAI and Meta, are detailed in the full report. It's worth noting the emissions data is from models of power plants constantly running at full capacity, which doesn't happen in reality. Emissions could be two-thirds less than what the models suggest, but that would still be a considerable output of greenhouse gases. There's no guarantee that all the gas-powered stations mentioned in the investigation will get built, but as demand for AI processing remains strong technology companies will likely look to keep up. Hope remains though, as some believe AI can be a catalyst for sustainability, but for now the path to cleaner AI is far from set in stone. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button! And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.

Gas power projects for just 11 US data center 'campuses' could emit more greenhouse gases than entire countries, according to report

While nuclear energy is often presented as the potential 'clean' solution for powering the vast number of US data centers currently under construction, the reality is that other, less sustainable energy solutions are often used to plug the gap. Wired has been examining air permits for several new natural gas projects linked to 11 data center campuses, and has determined they have the potential to emit more greenhouse gases than the country of Morocco in 2024. And unfortunately, the news mostly gets worse from there. The gas projects are being developed as part of an effort to provide power solely for data center usage, bypassing the traditional grid. Each has either been announced or is currently under construction, and as a result, has had to submit publicly-viewable air permits to suitable US state agencies. To take one of many examples from the report, Microsoft is said to be looking into purchasing power from a natural gas project in West Texas. According to its permit, the Chevron-backed project could emit more than 11.5 million tons of greenhouse gases a year. As Wired notes, that's more than the yearly emissions of the island nation of Jamaica. Or how about the gas turbines used to power xAI's Grok-crunching data centers? The Colossus campus in Memphis and the Colossus 2 campus in nearby Southaven could, according to the permits, potentially generate more than 6.4 million tons of CO2 equivalents, each, per year. That would be the rough equivalency of 30 average-sized natural gas plant emission figures. And then there's the Stargate Project, an OpenAI-led multicompany venture to create multiple data center campuses across several US states. Permit documents for just three Stargate-affiliated natural gas projects reportedly show they have a combined potential to emit more than 24 million tons of greenhouse gases -- again, in a single year. That's more than Costa Rica, and slightly less than Croatia, if you were wondering. Wired's estimates are based on the maximum listed emissions, so there's always hope to be found in the idea that some of these projects might not hit these figures in practice. Running continuously at full capacity, for example, would be unusual for a standard, grid-connected power plant. Alex Schott, the director of communications for an oil and gas company building three power plants for Meta, told the outlet that these sorts of estimates "represent a theoretical, conservative scenario, not the actual projected emissions", and that the actual figures could be "potentially two-thirds less than what's on the paper." Wired ran the numbers, and found that if the total emissions ended up being half the maximum figures shown on the permits, the combined gas power infrastructure would still create more greenhouse gas emissions in a single year than Norway did in 2024. Again, that's infrastructure linked to just 11 data center campus examples. And energy researcher Jon Koomey told the outlet that data center-specific gas plants may behave differently. A permit application submitted in November notes that traditional power plants have to respond to the demands of a constantly varying grid. "At the data center, the power requirements do not vary significantly," the application says. Koomey also says that, as highly efficient gas turbines are in short supply (like most things connected with the AI boom), some developers are already considering less efficient models, which will need to run longer and create more emissions. While many of the companies contacted by Wired describe the situation as something of a stopgap while clean power catches up -- and US president Donald Trump has signed an executive order to accelerate nuclear power plant construction -- it seems unlikely that all of these potential gas facilities would be retired once cleaner energy sources are brought online. However, several crumbs of hope remain. Air permit applications are not a guarantee of construction, for a start. And given global instability at the moment regarding the supply chains of, well, just about everything to do with AI data centers, from memory to power plant equipment, it's possible that data center growth may eventually slow enough for clean energy to catch up. Or that many of these proposed facilities may no longer be needed for other reasons. Still, it's pretty sobering stuff. As the founder of energy research firm Cleanview Michael Thomas puts it: "It's almost like we thought we were on the downside of the industrial revolution, retiring coal and gas, and now we have a new hump where we're going to rise. "That terrifies me in a lot of ways."