Summary
Behind-the-meter (BTM) gas generation has become the default strategy for hyperscalers that cannot wait years for grid interconnection. 48 GW (33% of all planned US data center capacity) now includes BTM generation. Williams, Bloom Energy, and direct builds by Google and Meta are leading the trend.
The Macro Number
- An estimated 48 GW of proposed US data center capacity (33% of all planned projects) now includes behind-the-meter generation, primarily natural gas.
- This is a structural shift, not a handful of projects.
Sources:
Williams Companies
- Total investment upgraded to $5.1 billion (from $3.1B announced earlier).
- Pipeline: 6+ GW of behind-the-meter projects across Texas, Tennessee, and Ohio by 2027.
- First project: New Albany, Ohio for a Meta-affiliated data center.
- Upsized from 400 MW to 750 MW / $2 billion.
- Expected online late 2026.
- Uses modular gas-fired or hybrid power plants.
- Williams’ Transco pipeline system ensures reliable gas delivery to BTM facilities.
- Company describes itself as “transforming traditional midstream infrastructure into a digital-age growth engine.”
Sources:
- Williams to Invest $3.1B in Power Projects for Data Centers - Yahoo Finance
- Williams pushes deeper into power generation as data center demand accelerates - Power Engineering
- Powering data centers: behind-the-meter power, explained - Williams Companies
- Natural Gas Fuels the AI Boom: Williams Builds the Backbone for Data Centers - Rextag
Bloom Energy
- 2026 revenue guidance: $3.1-3.3 billion.
- “Very large product backlog” driven by AI data center power demand.
- Solid oxide fuel cells: fuel-flexible (natural gas, biogas, hydrogen).
- 99.9-99.999% reliability.
- Modular: scales from 20 MW to 500+ MW.
- Already supplying 400+ MW to data centers worldwide.
- Named TIME’s Top GreenTech Companies of 2026.
- Stock up 28% YTD; “the real story is what’s happening behind the meter.”
Sources:
- Bloom Energy: Solving The AI Data Center Power Bottleneck - Seeking Alpha
- Bloom Energy Stock Is Up 28% This Year - Law News
Google / Crusoe Energy - “Goodnight” Campus
- Location: near the town of Claude, Armstrong County, North Texas.
- 933 MW natural gas plant (nearly 1 GW). Behind-the-meter. Not grid-connected.
- 265 MW wind farm + up to 1 GW battery storage on site.
- Total campus cost estimated at ~$30 billion.
- Would emit approximately 4.5 million tons of CO2 annually (more than many US cities).
- Google does not yet have a contract for the gas plant power.
- Crusoe filed the gas plant permit in January 2026.
- No carbon capture planned.
- This is Google, the company that previously pledged to run entirely on clean energy.
Sources:
- Google eyes natural gas as AI power demand outpaces clean energy - Axios
- Google Is Considering Natural Gas Without Carbon Capture - Distilled Earth
- Google Partners with Gas Plant for AI Data Center, Abandoning Carbon Neutral Goals - EnviroLink
- Google’s Texas Data Center Relies on Gas Plant Emitting 4.5M Tons of CO2 Annually - SoMuchInfo
Meta - El Paso Data Center
- Investment grown from $1.5 billion to $10 billion.
- Power: 366 MW modular gas plant using 813 small gas-fired generators.
- Cost: $473 million (“McCloud facility”).
- Does not require water for cooling.
- Built on 31 acres adjacent to data center in Northeast El Paso.
- El Paso Electric would build and own the plant, paid for by Meta.
- Five-year “bridge” supply arrangement.
- Expected operational 2027 if approved by Texas PUC.
- Facing significant community pushback: air pollution, water usage, tax breaks for Meta.
- El Paso City Council has formally intervened.
- Previously El Paso Electric said existing infrastructure would suffice; now seeking a whole new gas plant.
Sources:
- El Paso Electric filings detail power plant impact behind Meta’s $10 billion data center - El Paso Matters
- El Paso Meta data center calls for $473 million gas-powered power plant - El Paso Matters
- Meta to deploy 366MW of modular gas units to power 1GW data center - DCD
- Plan to run El Paso data center on natural gas sparks concern - Texas Tribune
Project Finance and PPAs
- Energy Capital Partners + KKR: $50 billion strategic partnership (announced July 2025) to develop co-located power generation and data centers.
- Traditional project finance lenders now underwriting large syndicated loans backed by long-term leases and power-supply arrangements.
- TotalEnergies signed a 15-year PPA with Google: 1.5 TWh certified renewable from Montpelier solar farm (Ohio), connected to PJM for data center operations.
Sources:
- Powering Data Centers - Orrick
- Data Center 2026 Outlook: Energy, Infrastructure, and Connectivity - Morgan Lewis
Our Thinking (2026-04-05)
The BTM trend is the single most important structural shift in power generation for data centers. Three dynamics make it self-reinforcing:
- Grid wait times are years. BTM deploys in months. For hyperscalers competing on AI training speed, years is unacceptable.
- The SPEED Act is stalled. No permitting reform means grid interconnection stays slow. BTM avoids the grid entirely.
- Gas turbine lead times are 8 years for large CCGTs. BTM uses smaller, modular equipment (Williams’ approach, Bloom’s fuel cells, Meta’s 813 small generators) that ships faster.
The community pushback story (Meta El Paso) is worth watching. If local opposition kills or delays BTM projects, it creates a new bottleneck. Air quality permitting could become the next “permitting reform” debate.
Google’s Goodnight is the symbolic turning point: the biggest clean-energy-pledged tech company building a gigawatt gas plant with no carbon capture. The Hormuz crisis and AI demand have rewritten corporate climate strategies.
Watch: Williams Q earnings (BTM project updates), Bloom backlog growth, Meta El Paso PUC decision, Google Goodnight contract status.