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(Reuters) – The Iran war has become an additional driver of demand for gas turbines, Siemens Energy executives said on Thursday, at a time when manufacturers are already flooded with orders due to the massive data centre expansion in the United States.
Along with rivals GE Vernova and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Siemens Energy has seen demand for gas turbines soar as so-called hyperscalers invest more than $700 billion in energy-hungry artificial intelligence, in turn driving demand for new energy capacity.
This trend, which has boosted the firms’ share prices in recent years, is now being supported by Middle East governments seeking to ensure energy supplies in light of attacks on their infrastructure, board members told reporters at a company event.
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“If you look at some of these countries, especially in the Gulf, you see that they are launching new tenders. So that if a big power plant is down, they are not out,” Karim Amin, who leads Siemens Energy’s gas services division, said.
Amin said that a reserve capacity of 15%, which was common in a “world where power plants were not targeted”, was no longer sufficient in light of the Iran conflict, something he said had caused turbine prices to rise.
On the logistics side, Amin said the company has been able to switch to truck-based transport in the region as an alternative to shipping, adding that while this added time and costs “it did not stop the business”.
Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch said data centres accounted for around a quarter of the group’s gas turbine order backlog, with the U.S. market accounting for 40% of the global market that stands at around 100 to 120 gigawatts.
“We’re firing on all cylinders,” he said, adding the group planned to steadily increase capacity up to 2030 but has reached the limit of its ability to raise output in the short term.
“We’ve already done everything we can,” he said.
Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by David Holmes
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