The owners of Pennsylvania's once-major coal-fired power plant announced plans to convert it into a $10 billion natural gas-powered data center complex, targeting the rising energy demands of Big Tech companies for artificial intelligence and cloud computing needs.

The former Homer City Generating Station, located about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh, will house seven gas-fired turbines to supply electricity to on-site data centers with a capacity of up to 4.5 gigawatts, sufficient to power around 3 million households.

Construction is set to commence this year with power generation expected to begin by 2027. The initial investment of $10 billion may be surpassed by additional costs for site preparation and data center construction.

Essential infrastructure for the project, such as transmission lines, substations, and water access, is already in place as a legacy of the retired coal plant. Homer City Development, the investor group, secured a $5 million state grant to extend a gas line to the site situated above the prolific Marcellus Shale natural gas reservoir.

In a recent development, the group demolished the remaining cooling towers and smokestacks from the coal plant that ceased operations in 2023 after over five decades due to various factors like competition from cheaper natural gas, reduced demand in mild winters, escalating coal prices, and stringent environmental regulations.

The growing demand for chatbots and AI products, following the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT, created a surge in power requirements, prompting tech giants to seek new energy sources, reconsider nuclear energy, and explore gas-fired plants, leading to concerns about electricity shortages among state and federal regulators.

Furthermore, utilities are postponing the retirement of aging power plants and reviving nuclear plants, exemplified by the recent decision to reopen the defunct Three Mile Island nuclear plant to supply Microsoft's data centers under a 20-year partnership.