Featured in Born in the USA – 02-2026

Plugging the gas leak

Demand for gas turbines has never been higher, with an anticipated spike in future energy demand filling order books for years to come. Complex engineering makes expanding manufacturing capacity tough, but can solar and energy storage plug the gaps left by gas?
Matthew Lynas
By
Matthew Lynas
Google’s data center campus in The Dalles, Oregon. Rising energy demand from AI data centers is straining the gas turbine supply chain. | Photo: Lambtron/Wikimedia Commons

The gas turbine supply chain bottleneck is so tight that some data center builders in the United States are buying refurbished jet engines to meet their vast energy generation needs. Expanding AI infrastructure to levels Silicon Valley investors want is going to require more electrons than current global turbine manufacturing capacity can provide. Delivery times …

pv magazine
Subscribe to get access to this content
Purchase a digital or print subscription to read this article in full. Choose the best subscription for you.
View our subscription options