As data center energy needs surge amid a tightening power gap, Bloom Energy’s 2025 data center power report predicts that data centers will increasingly turn to onsite power sources to ensure timely energy availability amid a growing supply and demand imbalance.
Bloom’s 2025 Data Center Power Report notes that U.S. electricity demand is growing at an unprecedented rate, with 35 GW of data center capacity projected to be announced within the next five years – over six times the average energy capacity used by New York City annually. At the same time, the nation’s utility grid is not expected to keep pace with the soaring demand due to bottlenecks with its transmission and distribution infrastructure.
The Date Center Power Report surveyed approximately 100 data center leaders (between April and November 2024) who make decisions about power systems architecture. The survey also explored actions these leaders are taking to address access their data center power needs and tapped research from external data sources, including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, McKinsey & Company, and Goldman Sachs.
Onsite Power Use Projected to Grow Significantly by 2030
To secure electricity in a timely and reliable manner, data center leaders are focused on taking responsibility for their power needs. According to the Bloom report, approximately 30% of all data center sites are projected to use onsite power resources as a primary energy source by 2030. This is more than double the percentage projected by survey participants when asked just seven months earlier.
Onsite power includes fuel cells, gas turbines and emerging technologies such as small modular reactors (SMRs) and can work as a stand-alone energy source or in conjunction with the utility grid. Leaders surveyed emphasized developing onsite power arrangements in close collaboration with utilities.
Bloom Leads the Way in Delivering Onsite Power Resources
Bloom Energy is a global leader in power solutions, having developed the Bloom Energy Server®, utilizing solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) to deliver onsite power for data centers and other mission-critical facilities. The breakthrough technology improves energy resilience and reduces carbon output, helping to improve sustainability while providing always-on, dependable power.
Fortune 500 companies around the world have partnered with Bloom to adopt our solid oxide platform. Among these are AEP, Walmart, AT&T, Staples, The Coca-Cola Company, and Ferrari, as well as notable higher education and healthcare organizations such as Caltech and Kaiser Permanente. We have continued to advance our innovative energy solutions, with several important partnerships and installations occurring during the last year.
Among those, Bloom Energy signed a supply agreement with American Electric Power (AEP) for up to 1 gigawatt (GW) of its products, the largest commercial procurement of fuel cells in the world to date.
Leaders See Value Differently – Time to Power Takes on Greater Importance
The survey also asked data center leaders what matters most when considering various technologies and solutions. According to the report, decision-makers are now prioritizing new factors like time to power, which refers to the speed of energy deployment, and the ability to support more demanding and fluctuating AI workloads, reflecting a shift beyond traditional drivers of cost and reliability. This shift offers important insights into the increasing priority of gaining a strategic advantage by coming online ahead of competitors.
To learn more about growing power issues and how the data center industry is addressing these challenges, download a copy of the full report here.
