TURBINE-X Energy Contracts Baker Hughes to Power Data Centers with NovaLT Turbines

Baker Hughes will provide TURBINE-X Energy with its NovaLT gas turbine technology and auxiliary equipment, such as gears and power generators, to power numerous data center projects in North America. TURBINE-X Energy, a Baker Hughes-licensed packager, will supply these industrial gas turbine packages in a combined-cycle configuration, helping U.S. data center project developers and power producers meet the growing energy demand.

“Due to surging demand for generative AI, we see increasing opportunities for our power generation solutions to support behind-the-meter power requirements for data centers,” said Ganesh Ramaswamy, Executive Vice President of Industrial & Energy Technology at Baker Hughes. “We’re ready to drive progress at scale, leveraging our expertise and network of strategic partners to quickly provide market-ready, reliable, flexible, and efficient solutions to partners in the data center market, as well as broader industrial adjacencies where access to power is business critical.”

This follows an additional data center-focused partnership established earlier this month: Baker Hughes will deliver its technologies and resources to Frontier Infrastructure’s large-scale carbon capture and storage, power generation, and data center projects across Wyoming, the broader Mountain West, and Texas.

NovaLT & More

The NovaLT gas turbine will provide data center customers with the flexibility to adapt and meet their specific, reliable, and sustainable power requirements. It can start-up quickly and burn multiple fuels, such as natural gas, hydrogen-natural gas blends, and 100% hydrogen. In addition to powering hyper-scaled data centers with turbine technology, Baker Hughes can use geothermal, cogeneration, and the Net Power platform to meet increasing electricity demand.

Operator near NovaLT16 gas turbine; image credit: Baker Hughes

More Baker Hughes News

This week, the U.S. Air Force and the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) granted Baker Hughes “Awardable” status to explore and develop geothermal energy supply for national security applications. Baker Hughes may now develop utility-scale geothermal power plants at U.S. military bases internationally, generating reliable, low-cost electricity off the grid, preventing downtime during outages.

The CDAO solicitation process, otherwise known as the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace (TSM), accelerates the procurement and adoption of mission-critical technologies, such as:

• Artificial intelligence
• Machine learning
• Resilient energy technologies

Baker Hughes’ solution was submitted among additional applicants in the TSM, demonstrating degrees of innovation, scalability, and positive impact on DoD missions.

Baker Hughes also, under a framework agreement with NextDecade Corp., agreed to deliver its gas turbine and refrigerant compressor equipment packages for Trains 4 – 8 at the Rio Grande LNG facility. The company will also perform maintenance on these equipment packages. Baker Hughes anticipates orders as NextDecade’s project continues.

Once NextDecade permits, constructs, and operates Trains 6 through 8, the company’s total liquefaction capacity will increase by approximately 18 MTPA. The permitting processes for Train 6, 7, and 8 are currently under development and scheduled to begin soon. NextDecade is progressing the commercialization of Rio Grande LNG Trains 4 and 5, expecting to make positive final investment decisions and begin construction once the following are satisfied:

• Maintaining government approvals
• Finalizing and executing engineering, procurement, and construction contracts
• Entering commercial agreements
• Obtaining financing to build trains and associated infrastructure