Datacenters pledging to produce their own power but gas turbines in short supply

Posted by CompetitiveLake3358@reddit | hardware | View on Reddit | 23 comments

Natural gas is source for most datacenters to get reliable power without using the grid but suppliers will take 7 years to even meet current turbine demand.

GE Vernova will increase production 25% and Mitsubishi will double its turbine output

Critics say that demand will triple in ten years, and it's simply not enough

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DeHub94@reddit

I didn't have gas turbines on my list of things getting their prices inflated due to AI but here we are.

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Bderken@reddit

Anything that produces energy is getting inflated. Transformers, gas turbines, jet turbines. Except solar I think

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Bderken@reddit

Solar panels are getting cheaper. But big inverters are kinda staying the same.

But data centers are being built where there’s already a lot of talent, so yes near cities. You can’t fit giant solar array there. So they are rapidly ordering turbines and transformers to get the job done now.

Solar arrays require a lot more work than turbines/generators. So data center companies aren’t putting those up.

But, private equity companies are investing into solar to build and sell energy that way (to anyone who wants it not just data centers). So that’s a good thing even though private equity is bad

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BeautifulChallenge77@reddit

Not sure the staffing assertion is accurate. It appears that these are usually minimally staffed, perhaps a total of 20 people around the clock. Moreover, they are being inserted in rural areas all over the country now. The original reason for proximity to big cities is network diversity and overall bandwidth.

In regards to the OP, almost no one is generating their own power without the utility provider unless they go nuclear. If they use fuel cells or turbines, they rely on the natural gas feeds from the utility provider. So, either electricity or gas costs will increase in those local areas.

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Strazdas1@reddit

Its almost like theres demand for energy infrastructure.

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BatteryPoweredFriend@reddit

It's quite fortunate the US Navy has its own long standing systemic problems with fleet construction overshadowing everything else, since these US tech companies would be doing China a real solid by directly competing against the Navy for supply of these turbine generators.

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Gunmetal_61@reddit

I’m upset because I’ve been saving up for three years to upgrade from the one in my office. /s

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FastCode9582@reddit

We supply used and new gas turbines (both US/ Europe made) worldwide from China. Connect if you want to get more details. Currently, our stocks includes GE LM6000, Solar Titan 130, Solar Taurus 70, GE9E, SGT-400, SGT-800, some new with zero hours and some are used but in excellent conditions.

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GrixM@reddit

I cannot believe fossil fuels are still a thing

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clearlybreghldalzee@reddit

Why wouldn't it be? It's generally the cheapest energy

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GrixM@reddit

Certainly not when you include externalities. All that death and suffering...

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Crenorz@reddit

correct. That is why they should go solar. It will be faster to build and has no emissions... so... get to it.

China - just this year - will build enough solar to power ALL of the USA. And will still grow next year and more... we need to catch up.

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nanonan@reddit

Could be part of the solution, but solar is a poor base for someone wanting consistent 24/7 output somewhere lacking grid capacity to 'store' it.

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Jeep-Eep@reddit

I mean, Qatar Energy just force majeure'd for its contracts, so the problems here and for the AI bubble are just gettin' started.

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JaredsBored@reddit

That shouldn't really affect US gas prices. The US more natural gas than we know what to do with. The problem is that the supply of ships and LNG capable ports to export it is a massive bottleneck, and has been since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine (so this is nothing new). Qatar going down is a problem to everyone with a pipeline to the middle east or contracts to take their gas via ship. FWIW Canada's in the same bucket as the US in that they've got the gas but not the infrastructure to export it abroad.

I'm still a big Ironbridge proponent of the magic rocks that boil water first and foremost, but LNG is certainly an upgrade over coal at least.

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Strazdas1@reddit

with europe building gas terminals now that russian addiction pipelines are no longer viable sohuld significantly increase demand for your gas ships too. My country is already importing gas from US via ships.

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JaredsBored@reddit

Basically every part of that LNG supply chain is a bottleneck right now. There are not enough ships, export terminals, or import terminals. And once you get the gas there is also a large backlog on the construction of new generation stations.

Baseline power generation from nuclear, gas, coal, or thermal can't be fully replaced by wind or solar without massive batteries that also don't exist at scale (more recent studies have shown you really need 2x weeks worth of capacity in batteries to fully eliminate blackouts from a solar and wind only grid).

There really is no quick fix. The magic rocks that boil water are still my clear favorite and bias.

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pythonic_dude@reddit

LNG is not an improvement big enough to bother with it, in a better world people arguing for it would be put against the wall. Too much energy losses during liquification and transportation.

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Competitive_Towel811@reddit

They're just robbing Peter to pay Paul. Doesn't matter who owns the generation so long as it gets built.. but that's where the bottleneck is to begin with.

I mean it would be great if we could build other stuff too but natural gas seems to be the only choice politicians from one side or the other don't immediately try to squash.

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