The impact of data centers on manufacturing is like what happens when tennis players suddenly have to share their courts with a pickleball club. The new neighbors may be friendly, but they consume a lot of resources and command all the attention. Data centers are massive electricity consumers, and their power demands are rising sharply as AI applications become more power-intensive. According to Bloom Energy’s 2026 Data Center Power Report, one-third of data centers are expected to consume more than 1 GW of electricity by 2035 — roughly the same as San Francisco’s peak load. This surge puts manufacturers in direct competition with data centers for limited grid capacity, making it harder than ever to secure new or expanded power connections and potentially delaying new operations.
Historically, manufacturers have relied on the grid as their primary — often sole — source of electricity. But the assumption that grid power will be readily available is increasingly in doubt. The time it takes a utility to energize a large new load can now stretch into multiple years. For manufacturing companies planning new facilities or expansions, time to power is becoming a critical factor in both site selection and investment decisions.
To address this challenge, manufacturing leaders are increasingly exploring onsite power, not simply as a backup, but as a way to ensure energy certainty, reduce exposure to grid delays, and maintain momentum in an environment where power is at a premium.
The New Battle for Grid Power
The gap between projected demand and available power has widened over the past six months in three critical data center markets: Northern Virginia, the Bay Area and Atlanta. As data centers expand beyond these traditional tech hubs in search of power, availability challenges are expected to spread into manufacturing-heavy regions, increasing competitive pressures for large and small industrial consumers.
“Manufacturers can lose out to data centers looking for capacity in the range of hundreds of megawatts. There has to be someone else providing power to the smaller manufacturers,” said Kaushal Biligiri, Senior Energy Transition Champion at Bloom Energy.
Extended Timelines, Higher Risk
Securing electricity is not just about availability — it’s also about timing. Manufacturers and other large power consumers increasingly find they cannot reliably obtain the power they need, when and where they need it.
Utility timelines to energize large new loads can stretch for years, delaying production and slowing revenue realization for manufacturers.
Bloom Energy’s 2026 Data Center Power Report highlights a persistent misalignment between utilities and large power consumers. Data center operators now report that it takes 1.5 to 2 years longer for utilities to deliver power than they expected.
For manufacturers planning new facilities or expansions, these extended timelines make “time to power” a critical factor in site selection, investment decisions and operational continuity.
Reimagining Onsite Power
Onsite power has existed in heavy manufacturing for decades, primarily as a backup power source. However, with today’s grid constraints forecast to intensify in the coming years, its role is expanding. Installing reliable, onsite power generation that runs 24/7 has become a necessary strategy for leading manufacturers.
Fuel cells are a leading onsite power generation solution that many manufacturers and large-load customers are now considering, for several reasons.
Time to Power
First, fuel cells offer a shorter time to power than other solutions. For example, natural gas or diesel generators can have multi-year lead times due to supply chain issues. Bloom Energy, however, can deliver 50 MW of onsite fuel cell power generation in as little as 90 days, and 100 MW in 120 days.
“That short time to power is something that is of huge value to manufacturers, because it solves their problem as quickly as possible so they can focus on what's important to them, which is their operations,” Biligiri said.
Lower Emissions, Faster Permitting
Fuel cells also feature a significantly better sustainability profile than traditional onsite power resources. Fuel cells are non-combustion energy generation assets, so their criteria pollutants are negligible. As a result, permitting is both simpler and faster. In fact, fuel cells are exempt from air permitting in several states up to a certain threshold, and in certain other cases, a simple permit is all that’s required.
Modular Architecture Scales with Your Business
The modular architecture of fuel cells also enables manufacturers to precisely and quickly size capacity based on current needs. Like Lego blocks, fuel cells can stack vertically, providing up to 100 MW of electricity within a one-acre footprint.
“If a manufacturer is setting up a 100 MW facility, they won't need all 100 megawatts on day one. They probably have a ramp plan that spans a couple of years. Fuel cells play really well into that because they can grow with the project,” Biligiri explained.
Reliability and Resilience
Finally, fuel cells provide manufacturers with long-term reliability and resilience. If grid power becomes available later, fuel cells can interconnect with the grid and operate as a microgrid, providing resilience to the facility during grid outages. They can also power operations during peak demand, reducing operating costs.
Power Certainty as a Competitive Advantage
For manufacturers, securing power is becoming a strategic decision rather than an operational afterthought. Just as a tennis club team might find it easier to move to a new location rather than compete with the pickleball players for court time, manufacturers are switching to onsite power rather than compete with data centers for grid access.
Solutions that can be deployed quickly, scaled over time and integrated flexibly with the grid are increasingly central to their long-term planning.
Bloom Energy empowers enterprises to meet soaring energy demands and responsibly take charge of their power needs. The company’s solid oxide fuel cell systems provide ultra‑resilient, highly scalable onsite electricity for Fortune 500 customers around the world, including data centers, semiconductor manufacturing, large utilities, and other commercial and industrial sectors. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Bloom Energy employs more than 2,000 people worldwide and manufactures its systems in the United States. For more information, visit BloomEnergy.com.
To learn more about how onsite fuel cells can support manufacturing operations, contact Bloom Energy or explore its latest resources, including this webinar and manufacturing power playbook.
