Most new US power is clean — but utilities are choosing gas for data centers

The power grid is getting cleaner overall, but the type of company building new plants makes a big difference. Developers plan to add a record 86 gigawatts of capacity in 2026, with 93% coming from solar, batteries, and wind. But when utilities themselves build power plants, the mix looks different. Looking at projects utilities have approved or contracted specifically for data centers, nearly two-thirds of that new capacity is gas.

Data centers are a big reason. Big tech companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are signing contracts for clean power, but the data centers they run mostly still draw electricity from utilities, which lean toward gas plants because they can run steadily through both summer and winter demand, unlike solar. In Kansas, utility Evergy wants to delay retiring about 2.8 gigawatts of coal plants by at least five years while adding new gas capacity, citing demand from data centers. Duke Energy has signed deals with 7.6 gigawatts of data centers and plans mostly gas to serve them.

Federal policy is pushing in the same direction. The tax law signed in July 2025 cut off wind and solar tax credits for many projects that hadn't started construction, and the Department of Energy has used emergency powers to keep coal plants running past planned retirement dates. None of this changes anything for homeowners directly, but it shapes what kind of power plants get built near you and what your local utility bills you to build them, decisions made case by case before state regulators.