Oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil is planning to sell electricity to data centers, with the construction of a new natural gas plant that it claims will be able to capture more than 90% of its carbon dioxide emissions.

According to The New York Times, Exxon has already secured land for the plant, and has entered into discussions with possible customers. The facility is scheduled to open sometime in the next five years, and will be the first Exxon power plant that doesn't supply electricity to the company's own operations, as it looks to capitalize on growing demand for vast quantities of clean energy from data centers. 

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The International Energy Agency estimates that data centers accounted for up to 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2022, with the rise of artificial intelligence only serving to increase the strain on grids over the last two years. Goldman Sachs projects that AI will drive a 160% increase in data center power demand by 2030, which could double the carbon emissions of the facilities over that same period.

Exxon's planned facility would be the first natural gas power plant in the U.S. operating at a commercial scale with carbon capture technology. Because it wouldn't be connected to the power grid, the plant will likely be able to fast-track its opening date, given the red tape that often comes with linking to the grid. It would also be twice the size of the nuclear reactor Microsoft is planning to reactivate on Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island to power its own data centers.