The data center boom is a diesel generator boom

Read the full story from Latitude Media. See also Diesel Generators at Data Centers: Status, Impacts, and Protective Practices from the Better Data Center Project.

Data centers need dispatchable power — and no matter how many clean options hit the market, fossil fuel-powered generators remain in huge demand. In just five years, diesel generator capacity at data centers nearly tripled, going from 20 gigawatts in 2018 to 55 GW in 2024, according to a new report by the Better Data Center Project, a policy organization focused on minimizing the environmental costs of rapid data center expansion. 

In Virginia — the largest data center market globally, believed to host more than a third of all hyperscale data centers worldwide — there were over 10,500 generator units permitted for data centers by the end of 2025, with a total capacity of 27 GW. That’s equivalent to the power usage of roughly 20 million U.S. households, in a state with less than 4 million homes. Oregon, which has a rapidly growing data center market, has six GW of permitted and proposed diesel generators, double the combined average yearly power consumption of homes in the state.