GE Vernova's gas turbine orders keep piling up

The company's gas turbine backlog hit 116 GW, driven partly by data centers, while wind orders fell 40% — a sign of grid strain and fossil lock-in.

GE Vernova's gas turbine order backlog reached 116 GW at the end of Q2 2026, up from 100 GW a quarter earlier, and the company expects a combined order-and-reservation backlog of 125 GW by year-end. It shipped 3 GW and signed 20 GW of orders and reservations in the quarter, and is now taking reservations for deliveries as far out as 2031. Total backlog across its three business lines stood at $176 billion, up from $129 billion a year earlier. Meanwhile, wind equipment orders fell 40 percent year over year.

CEO Scott Strazik said gas customers span about 100 entities across 26 countries — roughly 80 percent traditional utilities and 20 percent data centers. The company plans to lift annual turbine manufacturing capacity to 30 GW by 2030, from 20 GW today. Analyst estimates put heavy-duty turbine pricing near $790/kW, HA-class combined-cycle at $950/kW, and aeroderivative units at $1,800/kW.

This is a friction signal. Demand for clean electricity, much of it from AI data centers, is outrunning clean supply, so buyers are locking in gas capacity with delivery slots stretching into the 2030s. Each multi-decade turbine commitment gates the energy transition and risks keeping fossil generation in the mix long after cleaner options mature.

Caveats: the pricing figures are analyst estimates, and one analyst called the 30-GW expansion plan uncertain. Others flag community opposition and labor shortages as risks to the data-center load growth propelling these orders. The wind slump ties partly to current US trade and energy policy.

Source: Utility Dive