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Our Take on Digital Infrastructure

| 1 minute read

Power Play: ExxonMobil Announces Plan to Build Datacenter-Focused Natural Gas Plant

ExxonMobil recently announced plans to build cleaner natural gas power plants specifically for data centers, marking a significant milestone in the energy industry's response to surging demand for data center power. 

As operators face mounting pressure from market critics and regulators over energy inefficiencies and grid dependency, the tech sector has largely taken it upon themselves when it comes to seeking sustainable solutions – seen most recently by Google, Meta, and Amazon's investments in on-site renewable energy projects to support their own data center operations. While these investments are necessary to increase clean power supply and alleviate strain on the public grid, the variable and intermittent nature of renewable energy sources like solar and wind can pose challenges in consistently meeting the high and constant power demands of modern data centers.

Natural gas has therefore been and will remain a crucial power source for these facilities due to its more reliable and consistent energy output. And by leveraging carbon capture technology in developing a cleaner natural gas power plant for data centers, ExxonMobil provides a strategic response to the complex challenges of data center energy consumption and better positions natural gas in the market as a sustainable clean energy solution. 

That such a project is on the table at Exxon, a company that has previously dismissed the idea of investing in the power business, shows just how much the growth of data centers and the rise of artificial intelligence are reshaping the energy industry.