New Power Plants for Data Centers Will Significantly Increase Pennsylvania’s Air Pollution

Data center developers in Pennsylvania plan to build at least seven new solar power plants that will emit the same amount of greenhouse gases as adding 14 million cars to the road every year, according to a new report.

A report from the Environmental Integrity Project, an advocacy group, said the plants would emit about 68 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, part of a national trend that will lead to a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions amid global efforts to reduce climate change. That bump would mean a 24 percent increase in Pennsylvania output by 2022.

The planned power plants, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the United States, are called “behind the meter” plants that will provide electricity directly to data centers instead of the grid, where data centers would have to draw power from other users, such as homes and businesses. The EIP report, titled “The Power Behind AI,” focuses on large power plants capable of generating 100 megawatts or more. The plants planned for Pennsylvania will produce about 14 gigawatts of power combined.

As data center projects expand across the United States, and affected communities say the rush to development will harm the environment and public health, the report is just the latest to warn of a national increase in greenhouse gas emissions due to the huge new demand for electricity from industry. Natural gas-rich Pennsylvania has attracted a lot of interest from tech companies hoping to build near the fossil fuel, even as the state’s legacy of fossil fuel mining means some residents are deeply skeptical of those plans.

“These power plants pose a threat to our climate and the health and well-being of nearby communities,” the 44-page report said. “Investment in artificial intelligence is driving the construction of a large wave of data centers and greenhouse gas energy plants across the US”

Aaron Tinjum, vice president of energy at the Data Center Coalition, a trade group, declined to confirm that the seven Pennsylvania plants would emit 68 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, and did not respond to a question about whether the planned power plants would harm the health and well-being of nearby communities, as the report said. But he said the industry was making “huge investments” in clean energy and “next-generation technologies”.

Data centers became part of the contract for wind and solar power by 2024, Tinjum said, citing a study by S&P Global.

“While planning and managing the grid is ultimately the responsibility of utilities, grid operators, and regulators, the alliance is committed to being an active partner to help promote solutions that improve accessibility, reliability, and the growth of the modern economy for all customers,” he said.

In Pennsylvania, the largest behind-the-meter power plant studied by the report is the Homer City Generating Station, a former coal-fired plant east of Pittsburgh in Indiana County, which would emit more than 17.5 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year. If fully converted to natural gas, it will generate up to 4.7 GW of power, making it one of the largest generators in the country. As a coal-fired facility, Homer City closed in 2023.

Another plant, in Shippingport in Beaver County, would emit more greenhouse gases—21.1 million tons a year—although its generating capacity would be less than the Homer City plant, at 3.6 GW, the report said.

Together, the seven Pennsylvania plants will increase greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equivalent to doubling the number of cars and trucks on Pennsylvania’s roads, according to Griffin Bird, the report’s lead author.

Pennsylvania’s attractiveness for data center developers is enhanced by sitting atop the Marcellus Shale, one of the world’s largest reserves of natural gas. The state is second only to Texas in terms of gas production in the US

Nationally, at least 74 gas-fired power plants, almost all new, are set to power the data center industry, producing 662 million tonnes of greenhouse gases, equivalent to Australia’s annual emissions or putting 140 million more cars and trucks on the road, the report said. In total, the plants identified by the study will produce three times as much energy as those in California.

About half of the plants included in the report will be located in Texas. Another 20 will be built in the Ohio River Valley across Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

Both national and state-wide estimates likely underestimate the problem because the study includes large plants behind the meter, Bird said. Pennsylvania has 66 data center projects proposed, approved, under construction or in some form of initial work, according to the Data Center Proposal Tracker, an independent website. Some of those may include behind-the-meter power plants that are not covered by the EIP study because they generate less than 100 MW, Bird said.

Alex Bomstein, executive director of the Pennsylvania-based nonprofit Clean Air Council, said the proposed Homer City facility, if fully built, would be the single largest source of air pollution in the state.

The fracked gas needed to run the facility would require 250 new wells to be drilled every five years, increasing the potential for aquifer contamination and the risk to public health, Bomstein said.

“That’s 250 new toxic inputs in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, and so on, as long as the plant is operating,” Bomstein said during a press conference to introduce the EIP report.

He blamed the industry and the administration of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania for promoting data centers in the face of public opposition. Shapiro said that data center developers must share their strengths and be open to the public about their plans if they want to be eligible for government assistance.

“What does Indiana County gain from this, and what does America gain?” he asked. “The public didn’t ask for AI data centers, and the public doesn’t want them. In an era of hyper-partisanship in America, the one thing that unites us is opposition to these big data centers,” Bomstein said.

The report also found that data centers and their dedicated power plants were often proposed in low-income communities where public health and environmental quality were already at risk.

“Adding more pollutants and particulates from these plants could exacerbate these health disparities,” said EIP executive director Jen Duggan. He said about 90 percent of the electrical equipment is planned in regions where life expectancy is below the national average.

To reduce the chances of unwanted data centers and their power plants, communities should be allowed to approve or deny the plants themselves, Duggan said.

When built, data centers should be powered by wind or solar power, backed by battery storage, not natural gas or coal, the report said. “Gas requires a huge amount of fuel every year, and eventually the gas runs out, and you have to install solar anyway. There’s not an unlimited supply of gas, even in Pennsylvania,” Bomstein said.

Duggan agreed. “It doesn’t make sense that the technology of the future is funded by the filthy remains of the past,” he said.