Two Years In, GE Vernova Is Reshaping the Energy Future

The world's demand for energy is growing at a pace that's increasingly difficult to match - and two years into its journey as a standalone company, GE Vernova is meeting the challenge head-on. The company is helping energy customers find reliable, cost-effective solutions for today that can be quickly scaled to meet the needs of tomorrow. Here are just a few of them.

Electrifying the Future of Data Centers and AI

AI and cloud computing are helping to drive the data center boom - and in some locations, pushing electricity needs beyond what existing power infrastructure can support today. While providers rush to expand grid capacity, GE Vernova is working with data centers and technology companies to increase the efficiency of their electricity infrastructures.

"The sizes of these data centers and their electricity consumption is growing exponentially," says Mandar Pandit, GE Vernova's chief strategy and growth officer for data centers. "Complex, high-speed computing requires power that is reliable, scalable, and efficient, and now customers are looking for it ASAP."

By 2030, data centers are expected to consume 9% to 10% of the electricity produced in North America, up from 3% to 4% in 2025. GE Vernova has responded since the spin-off by expanding manufacturing capacity and building expert teams to develop new, innovative solutions, moves that mean Pandit is busier than ever: In 2025, over $2 billion of GE Vernova's Electrification orders were signed directly for data center orders, more than triple the 2024 volume.

Mandar Pandit, GE Vernova's chief strategy and growth officer for data centers, says that "there are still a lot of unknowns about how AI is going to impact the energy industry, but we have built up our base to support these challenges."

The company is also working with with leading technology companies to plan for the next wave of data center growth. With NVIDIA, the company is exploring energy solutions for giga-scale AI "factories," including uber-efficient 800-volt direct current (VDC) systems that enable faster, more efficient, scalable infrastructure. For Amazon Web Services (AWS), GE Vernova is providing electrification scope as well as consulting services to support its digital innovation goals - including developing infrastructures to support the rise in power-intensive generative AI and achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

"There are still a lot of unknowns about how AI is going to impact the energy industry, but we have built up our base to support these challenges," says Pandit. "We are really at the center of this evolution, not only from an equipment standpoint but as a solution provider for a more sustainable world."

Planning Ahead to Increase Long-Term Capacity

In states like South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, factors including influx of people, advanced manufacturing facilities, and data centers means electricity demand across the region is expected to increase by about 25% by around 2035. Meeting it requires both rapid response and long-term strategic planning - such as the collaboration announced last year by GE Vernova and Duke Energy. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based energy holding company, which serves 8.7 million electric utility customers in the Southeast and Midwest, has signed an agreement for 20 new 7HA gas-power turbines aimed to be delivered over the next several years, with the first scheduled for this summer.

In this video, Duke Energy President and CEO Harry Sideris and GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik discuss the two companies' agreement to use 20 7HA gas turbines to power some of the fastest-growing parts of the country.

"Duke Energy recognized early that the need for power generation would continue to increase and that securing key equipment would be increasingly important," says Amy Wallace, GE Vernova's strategic account executive for Duke Energy. "By planning ahead and establishing this arrangement early, the company created greater certainty around supply for projects aligned with [Duke's] integrated resource plans."

GE Vernova has always made thoughtful, long-term planning a priority. Its approximately $600 million investment in U.S. manufacturing over two years, announced in January 2025, was made with the aim to support the growing needs of customers like Duke Energy, with whom it has a decades-long relationship. In particular, GE Vernova invested about $160 million in a Gas Turbine Manufacturing and Technology Center in Greenville, South Carolina, where 7HA turbines are made. These units join a broad portfolio of GE Vernova equipment that Duke operates today, including gas turbines, steam turbines, generators, nuclear reactors, and grid equipment.

Jeff Flanagan, general manager of Carolinas Dispatchable Generation at Duke Energy, and Amy Wallace, GE Vernova's strategic account executive for Duke Energy, touring an operational 7HA plant.

"This arrangement shows the value of acting early in a competitive environment," says Wallace. "It demonstrates that when customers and suppliers work closely together, they can create solutions that help support more reliable energy and help manage costs." It also equips energy providers with the resources they'll need to help address future customer needs.

Driving Reliability Across Renewable Energy Systems

With wind turbines playing a key role in the energy needs of the future, component performance and reliability are non-negotiables. GE Vernova's new Digital Blade Certification program, rolled out in mid-2024, provides a high-tech level of quality control that helps keep performance on track and flags issues early, before they can impact operations.

The pioneering certification process uses a robotic crawler outfitted with a high-resolution camera image and LiDAR surface mapping capturing the interior of the blade. The captured images are run through an AI model that can detect potential quality issues deep inside the component. Only when a blade passes digital inspection and receives its certificate is it ready for delivery.

Alan Walker, GE Vernova's wind blades repair engineering leader, and his team have developed a pioneering certification process that uses a robotic crawler to capture images inside a wind turbine blade that an AI model can use to detect potential quality issues.

"After reviewing images for defects, we can then send back to the factory a complete list of items to check and repair if needed," says Alan Walker, the company's wind blades repair engineering leader. "Whenever there is a question about that final inspection of a specific blade, I can, in seconds, pull up a 360-degree internal view of the blade as if I were crawling inside it, giving me quick insights from anywhere in the world."

To date, GE Vernova has delivered more than 9,000 blades with digital blade certificates. "Our customers are delighted that we've taken this step," says Walker. "We continue to use the results to not only stop and catch potential anomalies, but to improve the manufacturing and quality process."