Baker Hughes sees rising gas power demand creating new market for carbon capture and storage
upstreamonline.comA top Baker Hughes executive says growing electricity demand from data centers and electrification is creating a new market for carbon capture and storage (CCS) on gas-fired power plants. Speaking at Upstream's Global Development and Decarbonisation Week 2026, Ahmed Eldemerdash argued that gas turbines paired with CCS offer a scalable way to deliver low-carbon baseload power while meeting corporate emissions targets. Eldemerdash pointed to a projected 80 GW capacity shortfall for US data centers by 2030, according to Boston Consulting Group. He noted that gas plants have steady flue gas characteristics and baseload operating profiles, making CCS deployment more standardized and easier to replicate compared to industrial sectors like cement or steel. This standardization could help drive down costs across the broader CCS value chain. The executive framed gas turbine decarbonization as a potential enabler for scaling CCS across hard-to-abate industries. The comments reflect a growing industry view that rising power demand, rather than policy alone, may accelerate commercial deployment of carbon capture technology in the power sector.