| Gas turbine developments
Could a delivery backlog derail a GT boom?
What gas turbine OEMs are doing to meet data centre demand Drew Robb
Data centres want more power – and, like Veruca Salt in the novel/movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, they want it now. But when developers contact gas turbine OEMs, they are being told they have to wait. In some cases, it is two or three years. But in other cases, it can be five or more years due to a surge in orders. Lurking eagerly in the wings are alternatives such as gas fuelled piston engines, battery energy storage systems, renewables, and even, looking further ahead, small modular reactors. If the industry doesn’t solve the delivery bottleneck problem: A) It will lose a lot of business to more nimble competitors; and
B) the biggest ever boom in GT history could be derailed – this one could perhaps even surpass the boom of the late nineties and early 2000s in the USA.
Data centre market growth Harry Hannam, senior analyst at commercial real estate firm Knight Frank, says global data centre capacity is expected to grow by 46% over the next two years and could expand by 177% by 2030.
“The development of artificial intelligence, which has sparked a technological arms race between the United States and China, will drive this growth, alongside the continued deployment of public cloud infrastructure,” said Hannam. “AI-based data centre capacity volumes doubled in 2024.” He added that the trend is accelerating in 2025.
The USA leads the way, with massive partnership deals signed to speed the creation of AI factories. GE Vernova is part of a $100 billion AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP) with BlackRock,
Nvidia, xAI, MGX Fund Management, NextEra Energy, and Microsoft. Meanwhile, the $500 billion Stargate project involves OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle.
They came out of the gate with the announcement of a 1.2 GW campus in Abilene, Texas. It has since been upgraded to close to 5 GW. Data infrastructure construction firm Crusoe is overseeing the building of an on-site natural gas power plant to secure uninterrupted electricity. Phase one is complete: two buildings totaling a million square feet and around 200 MW of power generating capacity. Phase two is underway. It consists of six additional buildings that should be online by the middle of 2026. According to Knight Frank, the big four tech firms, Microsoft, Amazon (AWS), Alphabet
On-site natural gas fuelled power plant, employing GE Vernova LM2500XPRESS aeroderivative gas turbines (35 MW apiece), under construction at the Stargate AI data centre in Abilene, Texas, USA. Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Date of photo 24 September 2025. Stargate is a collaboration of OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, with Crusoe in the role of infrastructure developer, builder and operator. Crusoe placed an order with GE Vernova for ten LM2500XPRESS units in December 2024 and a subsequent order for 19 units in June 2025. All are equipped with SCR.
www.modernpowersystems.com | November/December 2025 | 25
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