Utilities race for second-hand gas turbines as AI power demand surges

Utilities race for second-hand gas turbines as AI power demand surges

With new turbines taking years to arrive, utilities and data center developers are reviving mothballed units and converting retired jet engines

The AI boom has a hardware bottleneck that has nothing to do with chips. It is gas turbines, and there are not nearly enough of them.

Utilities, developers and companies building power for AI data centers are hunting worldwide for second-hand turbines, according to Reuters. They are bringing mothballed machines back to life and turning retired jet engines into power generators. The reason is simple: new turbines in the US now take six years on average to deliver, an analyst told the outlet.

The waitlist problem

The supply crunch shows up clearly in the numbers. Global turbine orders have climbed past 100 GW. Annual manufacturing capacity sits at just 60 to 70 GW.

Many manufacturing slots for future orders are already spoken for through 2030 and 2031. That pushes anyone arriving late into the next decade, which is awkward when your data center opens next year.

The big three turbine makers are feeling the pull. Siemens Energy, GE Vernova and Mitsubishi Power have all report...