All articles tagged with #gas turbine shortage
AI’s data-center power surge is colliding with a global gas-turbine bottleneck: major OEM backlogs and multi-year lead times, plus paid slot reservations, mean turbines won’t arrive fast enough to meet Goldman Sachs’ estimate of 36.3 GW/year demand, forcing reliance on alternatives and shifting the bottleneck to regulators and policy rather than factory output.
Applied Digital plans to power AI data centers with natural-gas-fired steam turbines from Babcock & Wilcox to bypass a looming gas-turbine delivery bottleneck, enabling earlier capacity. The company is targeting 1 GW online now and 5 GW in five years, with 2028 as the planned online window for the steam-turbine plants and a 15-year lease for 200 MW at Polaris Forge 2. Siemens Energy will supply the turbine-gen sets, and the move could give Applied Digital a multi-year lead over competitors by delivering capacity years earlier than traditional turbines—though growth hinges on turbine availability and power generation expansion.