In yet one more sign of the growing and overwhelming demand for artificial intelligence services, the Chevron Corporation expects to complete its first natural gas power station designed to power an AI data center by 2027.
The Houston-based multinational energy corporation has said that it plans to build a series of such plants, noting that data centers supporting AI require unprecedented amounts of electricity.
“We’ve been looking more and more at this space, talking to customers, largely the hyperscalers, the ones that are building out these big data centers,” Jeff Gustavson, Chevron president, recently remarked to the Washington Examiner.
Gustavson added that this particular data center sector wants the new facilities “as fast as possible because there is a bit of an AI race going on, not just with the companies in the US, but between countries globally, and so there are national security concerns with that.”
In a just-released statement from the company, it is noted that an AI data center can typically “consume as much as 50 times more power per square foot than a typical office building.” The statement adds: “A single query on ChatGPT can consume up to 10 times more energy than a Google search.”
The idea of using natural gas to generate such power, the Chevron press release continues, “is one way to help ensure reliable, continuous data center operations from a reliable energy power source.”
Working with General Electric and the investment firm Engine No.1, which is based in San Francisco, Chevron expects to serve an initial seven data centers located in the Midwest, Southeast and West.
The Chevron move comes as ExxonMobil has also announced plans to build its own natural gas-fired plants as energy sources for AI data center. The vision of the two companies, observes the publication Data Center Frontier, signals the dawn of a new era, with fossil fuel companies energetically venturing into a growing electricity market to “meet the rising demand for low-carbon power.”
February 14, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
