Data centers are increasingly targeting natural gas over renewable alternatives such as onshore wind, the CEO of energy equipment manufacturing and services company GE Vernova, has said.

Scott Strazik said this is reflected in the turbine manufacturer's “humble” wind order sheet, and does not expect significant interest in onshore wind from the data center market in the short term due to their requirements for constant 24/7 power, which natural gas provides.

“They’re not building those data centers with an assumption for anything other than 24/7 power. Gas is well suited for that,” Strazik said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Despite falling interest from data center operators, Strazik remained bullish on the future of wind power as a crucial source of energy, arguing that data center customers will “commit to roadmaps that take the carbon intensity of those electrons down,” which will lead to more renewable and nuclear power.

The US has seen significant growth in its renewable sector in the past ten years. A recent report from Environment America showed that renewable energy capacity increased threefold from 2014. Texas, California, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Kansas were the leading states for total renewable energy generation in 2023. That same year, 15 states generated 30 percent or more of their electricity from renewable sources, a significant increase from just two states achieving this in 2014.

As a result, Strazik expects onshore wind and other renewables to grow significantly within the next decades as industrial and commercial customers' net zero ambitions draw closer. He also notes that companies' gas customers have shown an increasing interest in combining their assets with carbon capture and storage systems to reduce their carbon intensity.

However, despite the optimistic projections of renewable energy, US utilities are increasingly viewing natural gas as a crucial energy source going forward due to the insatiable energy demand of data centers.

Last month, Clair Moeller, president and chief operating officer of US grid operator Midcontinent Independent System Operator, reported that data centers could potentially pay for gas-fired generation to power their facilities in the short term as a bridging mechanism to low carbon energy sources.

In early November, AltaGas CEO Vern Yu said its subsidiary Washington Gas was in discussions with customers about using the fossil fuel as a primary power source. According to Yu, the discussions were mainly driven by regional data center growth.

Data center operators have also begun signing agreements with gas producers to install new power generation on-site to power their operations. Last week, Meta announced a new $10 billion data center in Richland Parish, northeast Louisiana, powered by three combined-cycle combustion turbines with a capacity of 2.26GW built and operated by Entergy Louisiana.

An October report from S&P Global found that demand for natural gas to support data centers could reach three to six billion cubic feet per day as the industry struggles to find power for an AI buildout.

Natural gas is less polluting than other fossil fuels, but still comes with a much higher carbon footprint than renewables.

Significant concerns also exist about whether utilities can scale power generation effectively to meet the anticipated demand for data centers.

A new report from Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission has warned that at current rates, Virginia will not produce enough electricity to support unconstrained data center growth. To meet unconstrained demand, a new 1.5GW natural gas plant would be needed every two years for 15 consecutive years, which is equal to the busiest period of the last decade. This would also require scrapping the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which calls on the state to eliminate fossil fuel-derived energy by 2050.

GE Vernova was formed in 2024 from the merger and subsequent spin-off of General Electric's energy businesses. It produces a range of energy equipment, including wind turbines and natural gas generators.