Power scarcity drives datacenters to Texas, where the juice is

Steven

Power scarcity drives datacenters to Texas, where the juice is

Summary

Bloom Energy’s 2026 Datacenter Power Report finds power availability has become a primary constraint for datacentre growth in the US. Rapidly rising IT loads (the report projects ~80 GW in 2025 growing to ~150 GW or more by 2028) are outpacing the grid and generation capability in many regions. As a result, operators are shifting to locations with abundant power — Texas is forecast to become the leading bit-barn market, potentially exceeding 40 GW of IT capacity by 2028 (almost 30% of the US total).

The report predicts a sharp move towards onsite generation: roughly one in three datacentre campuses may be fully powered by onsite generation by 2030. Common onsite options include gas turbines (established but in short supply and carbon-emitting) and fuel cells (cleaner but costlier and with hydrogen challenges). It also forecasts larger campus scales — one in five new campuses expected to exceed 1 GW by 2030, rising to nearly one in three by 2035. Operators are urged to secure power earlier and align electrical strategy with AI-driven demand.

Key Points

  • Power availability moved from a planning consideration to a major constraint on datacentre growth.
  • Bloom Energy projects total IT load could rise from ~80 GW (2025) to ~150 GW+ by 2028.
  • Texas could exceed 40 GW of IT capacity by 2028 — nearly 30% of the US total — making it a major datacentre hotspot.
  • About one-third of datacentre campuses are expected to rely entirely on onsite power by 2030.
  • Gas turbines are the preferred onsite technology but face supply shortages and emissions issues; fuel cells are cleaner but more expensive and complex to deploy.
  • New-build campuses are increasing in scale: significant growth in >1 GW sites is expected by 2035.

Author’s take

Punchy: If you work on datacentre site selection, power procurement, hardware supply, or AI infrastructure planning, this is a big deal. Power is shaping where capacity gets built — fast.

Why should I read this?

Short version: datacentres need huge amounts of juice and the grid can’t always keep up. So operators are moving where power is plentiful and investing in onsite generation. Read this if you want the quick picture of why Texas is about to get even more datacentre heat, what technologies are in play (and their headaches), and why planning your electrical strategy now will save you time and cost later. We’ve done the heavy lifting — here’s the gist.

Source

Source: https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/20/texas_datacenter_hotspot/