As Georgia Power has gotten the green light from state regulators for a huge data center-driven expansion of its power-generating fleet, environmental groups are raising alarms that most of that new capacity will come from planet-warming fossil fuels.
Amid an artificial intelligence arms race, data center developers are fueling a huge expansion in power demand, and utilities like Georgia Power are seeking to meet it largely by building new natural gas plants.
The data center boom has reversed global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The World Meteorological Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, recently reported that atmosphere carbon dioxide levels worldwide surged by 3.5 parts per million from 2023 to 2024.
The increase is the largest since modern calculations started in 1957. In June, CO2 levels reached 430 ppm, the highest levels directly recorded, according to scientists with Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Scripps records the measurements daily for what’s called “The Keeling Curve,” named after the scientist who started the monitoring program.
Bob Sherrier, a staff attorney in the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Georgia office, said “five more methane gas power plants will pollute our state’s air and water for decades to come.”
The gas-fired power plants are part of an unprecedented buildout of Georgia Power’s power grid. The electric company said it needs to add 10,000 megawatts of power generation over the next five years. The amount will boost its fleet by a historic 42%.
What’s more, even though other nations have reported an increase in emissions at some point since 2019, the United States is the only one to post an increase so far this year, according to Ember, a unit of Ember Energy Research, a U.K.-based energy think tank that uses data to encourage the transition to clean energy.
Much of the planned electricity will power data centers, warehouses packed with servers that power artificial intelligence and our digital lives. Georgia is the fastest-growing market in the nation for the centers, which need power that is comparable to many large cities to operate.
Roughly 60% of the 10,000 megawatts will come from gas. The rest will be from a combination of solar and storage.
Georgia Power officials said the company has reduced the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from its power plants by more than 60% since 2007. It has cut other air emissions by more than 95% since 1990.
The electric company’s parent, Southern Co., also has a companywide goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. The energy giant also owns electric companies in Alabama and Mississippi.
These states, like Georgia, have actively fought against carbon-reduction and clean energy directives during Democratic administrations in Washington.
Georgia Power said its long-term planning process includes current and potential environmental regulations, but other factors come into play.
“We continue to add carbon-free resources while maintaining the reliability of the electric system for customers and meeting the demand that economic growth is bringing to the state,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
“Right now, we are addressing the significant increase in our capacity needs in the near-term to serve increased customer load,” which the company said needs to come from so-called dispatchable resources, or power plants whose output adjusts based upon electricity need.
Traditional power plants — gas, coal and nuclear — are considered to be dispatchable units and can operate all the time under any type of conditions. Renewable power, such as solar, is intermittent but can operate longer when paired with battery storage.
Emissions from the nation’s power sector began to trend downward when clean energy sources became more economical compared with gas and coal. Political pressure also led many states to adopt carbon reduction goals.
Clean energy advocates had been concerned about that drop hitting a plateau, but now the rise combined with an unprecedented surge in building fossil fuels is concerning, they have said.
“We are moving in the wrong direction,” Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Smith pointed out that much of this is from the Trump administration’s executive orders, which means a future administration also could undo them with the stroke of a pen.
While this could be a glimmer of hope in curbing fossil fuels, Smith said new environmental regulations would create a different problem for electric companies like Georgia Power and its customers: Newly built gas plants could be shuttered, but the costs remain.
“There’s risk for these stranded costs,” Smith said.
“You’ve got to build (the plants), and then you’ve got to fuel them and then you have all of the risk and costs associated with fuel and then are we going to be able to allow them to run for life?”
The Georgia Public Service Commission unanimously approved Georgia Power’s request to expand its power-generating fleet at a special meeting Dec. 19. During a 90-minute public comment session, activists and advocates decried commissioners for entertaining Georgia Power’s extensive power grid buildout, which they said would drive up already high utility bills and damage the environment.
Advocates also said allowing Georgia Power to build so many gas-fired power plants would create barriers to local governments and businesses — including big tech companies that use data centers — that have clean energy goals. Such targets require them to get electricity from renewable sources, such as solar, instead of gas, which is mostly made up of methane.
In earlier hearings, students, doctors and other constituents had asked the PSC to reject the new fossil fuel resources and push the utility to invest more in renewables.
Emory student and climate activist Ava Trachtenberg called the PSC’s decision “an existential one,” citing the decadeslong lifespan the new gas-burning power plants will have.
“In 2075, I will be 70 years old,” Trachtenberg said. “I hope to have children and maybe grandchildren by then. I am scared for the future I will have to pass on to them and I am scared for the future you are passing on to me.”
A note of disclosure
This coverage is supported by a partnership with Green South Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. You can learn more and support our climate reporting by donating at AJC.com/donate/climate.
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