Natural Gas Is a Major Part of Ohio's Data Center Buildout

The original claim that Ohio's entire data-center boom “will run on gas” was too categorical. The evidence does support a narrower conclusion: data-center growth is already driving substantial new natural-gas generation in Ohio.

Cleanview's current behind-the-meter analysis reports that Ohio leads the country in behind-the-meter capacity under construction. Meta and EdgeConneX projects in New Albany account for a combined 736 MW of natural-gas generation under construction.

The Ohio projects are part of a broader national shift. Cleanview identified 59 data centers with roughly 90 GW of announced behind-the-meter generation capacity, with most of those projects announced since the beginning of 2025. Behind-the-meter development is still early: only a small fraction of announced national capacity is operating today, while other projects remain under construction, permitted or at earlier stages.

That does not mean all Ohio data-center electricity will come from natural gas. Many facilities remain grid-connected, and future supply can include utility generation, transmission expansion, nuclear, renewables, storage and other technologies. Project plans can also change before construction or operation.

The more useful question is project-specific: How much new gas generation is actually being built, for which data centers, under what permits, and how will those facilities interact with the regional grid?