There is no universal land-, water- or energy-use winner between a data centre and a gas project. A data centre is an electricity user; a gas-fired power plant generates electricity, while a broader gas project may also include extraction, processing and pipelines. A fair comparison must match the service, location, scale, timeframe and system boundary—and count both direct site impacts and impacts from supplying power and fuel.
First define what “gas project” means
The comparison changes depending on whether “gas project” means a gas-fired power plant, the upstream gas supply system, or both. This article treats a gas-fired plant as the main point of comparison and includes wells, gathering and processing facilities, pipelines, and transmission where they affect the full system. Those components do not necessarily sit beside the plant or data centre, but they can add land, water and other impacts.
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A data centre is not itself a gas plant. It consumes electricity, and gas is one possible source of that electricity. The electricity may come from a mix of generators, which varies by region and time. The International Energy Agency’s 2025 analysis describes the physical sources supplying electricity, not simply the energy companies buy through contracts.
What the available figures can—and cannot—compare
The cited figures illustrate different parts of the systems. They are not matched project totals: they cover different geographies, years, technologies and accounting boundaries.
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| Impact | Data-centre evidence | Gas-project evidence | What a fair comparison needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land | The cited sources do not establish a universal data-centre site acreage or full infrastructure footprint. Site area depends on the facility and what supporting equipment is included (USGS, 2026). | DOE (2017) gives illustrative direct footprints of about 20 acres for a typical 555-MW combined-cycle plant and roughly half that for a typical 360-MW simple-cycle plant. These figures are not full gas-system totals. | Separate the direct site from supporting infrastructure, then compare projects of similar capacity or delivered service and include the same types of infrastructure on both sides. |
| Water | LBNL (2024) reports 4.52 litres per kilowatt-hour of indirect water consumption and 0.34 kilograms per kilowatt-hour of emissions for average U.S. data-centre electricity in 2023. These are report-derived national averages, not direct facility cooling rates. | The cited sources do not provide a single water figure for a gas project. Plant cooling and steam-cycle design affect use; upstream fuel activities add further impacts. | Report withdrawals and consumption separately, state whether the figure is onsite or electricity-supply water, and identify the watershed, source and cooling technology. |
| Energy | IEA (2025) estimates global data-centre electricity generation at 460 TWh in 2024 and projects more than 1,000 TWh in 2030 and 1,300 TWh in 2035 in its Base Case. | A plant’s fuel input and electricity output depend on its configuration and operation. The cited evidence does not establish a matched plant output or efficiency for a particular data-centre load. | Compare the same delivered electricity service over the same period; distinguish electricity consumed by the centre from fuel and generation resources needed to supply it. |
Land: site acreage is not the whole footprint
What to count for a data centre
A facility’s direct land area can include its buildings, substations, cooling equipment and other site works. Electricity infrastructure that serves it—such as generation and transmission—may be located elsewhere. Counting only the data-centre parcel therefore answers a narrower question than counting the land associated with its power supply.
What to count for gas generation
The DOE’s 2017 acreage figures are illustrative direct footprints for two plant configurations: about 20 acres for a typical 555-MW combined-cycle plant and roughly half as much for a typical 360-MW simple-cycle plant. They are not universal estimates for all gas plants, nor do they automatically include wells, gathering and processing, pipelines or transmission. The EPA identifies fuel extraction and transport, as well as centralized generation, as relevant parts of electricity’s environmental impacts.
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Those plant examples cannot be directly set against a data-centre acreage without matching capacity or service and deciding which supporting infrastructure counts. A smaller direct footprint for one facility would not, by itself, establish a smaller full-system footprint.
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Water: distinguish withdrawals from consumption
Direct facility water and power-supply water are different
A data centre may use water onsite, including for cooling, and its electricity supply may also use water at generating plants. Keep those quantities separate before combining them. The indirect water impact depends on where power is generated and which plants supply it; an onsite cooling metric alone does not describe the facility’s full electricity-related water footprint.
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Withdrawn water is not necessarily consumed water
Water withdrawal is the amount taken from a source. A power plant may return some withdrawn water, potentially warmer or otherwise altered; water lost through evaporation is consumed from the local system. Cooling systems and generation technologies change the balance, so a withdrawal figure cannot be treated as a consumption figure.
For scale, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported 47.7 trillion gallons of cooling-water withdrawals for the U.S. electric power sector in 2021 and a sector-wide withdrawal intensity of 11,595 gallons per megawatthour that year. These are national electricity-sector statistics, not data-centre use or a site-specific estimate. EIA had reported 47.5 trillion gallons of sector cooling-water withdrawals in 2020, down 10.5% from 2019; that historical change likewise does not predict the water use of a particular proposed project.
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LBNL’s 4.52 litres per kilowatt-hour figure is an estimate of indirect water consumption associated with average U.S. data-centre electricity in 2023. It should not be read as water consumed onsite by every centre, nor compared as though it were a gas plant’s direct cooling withdrawal. A meaningful local comparison needs the same water measure and a stated watershed, source and cooling design.
Energy: a data centre is demand; a gas plant is supply
Comparing electricity demand with a generator’s capacity or fuel use mixes unlike quantities. A data centre’s load describes electricity consumed; a gas plant converts fuel into electricity, with output and fuel needs depending on design and operation. Compare the same delivered service over the same period, and account for the electricity and fuel infrastructure required to provide it.
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In the IEA’s 2025 physical-mix estimate, natural gas met 26% of global data-centre electricity demand in 2024, while over 40% of U.S. data-centre electricity was supplied by natural gas. The U.S. share is a regional mix estimate, not a universal share or necessarily the contractual mix claimed by a company. The IEA projects that more than 40% of additional data-centre electricity demand through 2030 will be met by natural gas and coal together; this is an outlook, not an observed result. Renewables, coal, gas and nuclear all contribute to the global physical supply mix.
The same IEA Base Case projects global electricity generation to supply data centres rising from 460 TWh in 2024 to more than 1,000 TWh in 2030 and 1,300 TWh in 2035. Those are global scenario figures, not forecasts for an individual facility or region. They indicate why power-supply impacts matter, but do not tell a reader which generator serves a specific data centre.
How to make a useful local comparison
For a proposed site or project, compare documents and estimates that share a boundary rather than treating national averages or illustrative plant footprints as project-specific findings.
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- Define the service and scale. Record the data centre’s expected electricity load or the plant’s capacity and expected output, and compare the same delivered service over the same operating period.
- Map the system boundary. List direct site works and supporting electricity infrastructure for the data centre; for gas, identify the plant and whether upstream extraction, processing, pipelines and transmission are included.
- Separate land measures. State direct site acreage apart from the area associated with supporting infrastructure. Do not present the DOE’s illustrative plant acres as a total gas-system footprint.
- Separate water measures. Identify withdrawals and consumptive use, onsite and electricity-supply water, watershed and source, plus cooling technology. Do not substitute a national average for a local permit or project estimate.
- Identify the electricity supply. Use local grid and project-supply information where available, and distinguish physical electricity sources from contractual purchases.
- Check the time horizon and operating assumptions. Construction and operating periods, utilization, cooling design and generation technology affect what is being counted.
For a named proposal, the most relevant local evidence is its environmental review, water permit, site plan, capacity, cooling design and grid-supply information. Without these details, a precise local winner on acreage, water or energy is not established.
Conclusion
Data centres and gas projects affect land, water and energy through different parts of an interconnected system. The available evidence supports specific examples and national context, but not a universal acreage or water-use ratio between them. The sound comparison is a matched one: same service and timeframe, explicit direct and indirect boundaries, and clear distinctions between water withdrawals and consumption and between electricity demand and generation.
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