What will power the data center boom?

A guide to natural gas, LNG, CNG, propane and other fuels for onsite and behind-the-meter data center power.

Onsite power has moved from contingency plan to mainstream strategy. Data center developers as of September of 2026 have announced roughly 101 GW of onsite natural gas generation to get around grid interconnection queues, and analysts expect behind-the-meter systems to supply a quarter to a third of new data center power demand through 2030.

Most of the industry conversation is about the generation technology: turbine or engine, fuel cell or microgrid. But every one of those machines sits at the end of a fuel supply chain, and the fuel decision shapes cost, schedule, permitting, and uptime as much as the generator does. This guide covers the fuels in use today, what each one requires, and where each fits.

Read More

 

 

Behind the meter: On-site power is rewriting the rules, and it all runs on fuel

On-site generation is solving the electricity problem. But the megawatts are only half the story, the other half is fuel.

Somewhere on your facility sits a utility meter. Easy to walk past, but that unassuming box marks the front line of the biggest shift underway in energy: who makes your power, and where. Everything on the utility’s side is “in front of the meter.” Everything on yours is behind it, and behind the meter is suddenly where the action is.

For decades, behind-the-meter power meant a backup generator that coughed to life a few hours a year. No longer. Manufacturers, hospitals, campuses, mining and midstream operations, and, most visibly, data centers are designing on-site generation as primary or supplemental power. Why? Interconnection queues that stretch years. Demand charges that keep climbing. Grid congestion at the worst moments. Uptime the grid can’t promise. On-site generation puts the schedule, reliability, and cost structure back in the owner’s hands, and keeps the facility’s demand off the shared grid, where it would compete with the surrounding community. It’s no longer a workaround. It’s an energy strategy.

Read More