7.46 Gigawatts: Meta Adds Seven New Natural Gas Power Plants to Louisiana Data Center

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Meta announced last week that it will add seven new natural gas power plants to its Hyperion data center in Louisiana, bringing the site's total capacity to 7.46 gigawatts. According to TechCrunch, this scale is equivalent to the entire power supply of South Dakota. Previously, Microsoft partnered with Chevron and Engine No. 1 to build a scalable natural gas power plant of up to 5 gigawatts in West Texas; Google partnered with Crusoe to build a 933-megawatt natural gas power plant in North Texas.

According to estimates by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the undiscovered technically recoverable natural gas resources in the Permian Basin alone are approximately 28.3 trillion cubic feet. Based on national demand estimates, this is sufficient to supply the United States for about 10 months. Technology companies are concentrating their construction in the southern United States, a region with substantial global natural gas reserves.

Concentrated procurement by data center operators has led to tight supply of gas turbines. According to a Wood Mackenzie report, global gas turbine orders reached 110 gigawatts by the end of 2025, while annual production capacity is only 60 to 70 gigawatts. The agency expects gas turbine market prices to reach $600 per kilowatt by the end of 2027, a 195% increase from 2019. Gas turbine equipment accounts for 20% to 30% of a power plant's cost. New orders are scheduled until 2028, with a delivery lead time of 6 years.

According to the Short-Term Energy Outlook released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in February 2026, natural gas power generation accounts for about 40% of U.S. electricity, and electricity prices are closely linked to natural gas prices. Technology companies can bypass some grid scrutiny by placing power plants behind the meter and directly connecting them to data centers, but large-scale off-grid power supply could drive up overall electricity prices.

Other industries reliant on natural gas, such as petrochemical plants, may be affected by resource competition. Extreme weather can also exacerbate supply tightness. According to Data Center Dynamics, during the Texas winter storm in February 2021, low temperatures caused a decline in natural gas supply, leaving about 30 gigawatts of gas-fired generation capacity offline. Data centers in Austin went offline due to rolling blackouts, leaving approximately 200,000 customers without power.

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