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Data centers turn to retired aircraft jet engines for AI power - 48 MW each
Posted on 10/23/25 at 3:52 pm
Posted on 10/23/25 at 3:52 pm
quote:
Faced with multi-year delays to secure grid power, US data center operators are deploying aeroderivative gas turbines — effectively retired commercial aircraft engines bolted into trailers — to keep AI infrastructure online.
According to IEEE Spectrum, facilities in Texas are already spinning up units based on General Electric’s CF6-80C2 and LM6000, the same turbine cores once found on 767s and Airbus A310s. Vendors like ProEnergy and Mitsubishi Power have turned these into modular, fast-start generators capable of delivering 48 megawatts apiece, enough to support a large AI cluster while utility-scale infrastructure lags.
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers-turn-to-ex-airliner-engines-as-ai-power-crunch-bites
quote:
While this might not be the cheapest, and certainly not the cleanest, way to power racks, it’s a viable stopgap for companies racing to hit AI milestones while local substations and modular nuclear power deployments remain years away.
Jet-derived turbines are nothing new. They’ve been used in military and offshore drilling operations for decades, but this is the first time they’ve appeared in any meaningful way at data center sites. That speaks volumes about just how tight power supplies in the U.S. have become.
In one of the more visible examples, OpenAI’s parent group is deploying nearly 30 LM2500XPRESS units at a facility near Abilene, Texas, as part of its multi-billion-dollar Stargate project. Each unit spins up to 34 megawatts, fast enough to cold-start servers in under ten minutes.
What they gain in fast deployment and ramp speed, they lose in thermal efficiency. Aeroderivative turbines run in simple-cycle mode, burning fuel without capturing waste heat, which puts them well below the efficiency of combined-cycle plants. Most run on diesel or gas delivered by truck, and require selective catalytic reduction to meet NOx limits.
10
Posted on 10/23/25 at 3:57 pm to Shexter
And all these Silicon Valley chodes will look down on you for not driving a Tesla
Posted on 10/23/25 at 4:01 pm to Shexter
But why not just put solar panels on the roof?!?
Posted on 10/23/25 at 4:04 pm to Shexter
Imagine if we hadn’t been totally retarded about nuclear power for the past 5 decades.
But there was that one time in Pennsylvania where nothing happened so we had to effectively kill the industry with decades long red tape processes.
But there was that one time in Pennsylvania where nothing happened so we had to effectively kill the industry with decades long red tape processes.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 4:06 pm to Shexter
Oh boy, that's really really green!
Posted on 10/23/25 at 4:09 pm to Indefatigable
quote:
Imagine if we hadn’t been totally retarded about nuclear power for the past 5 decades.
Dead on arrival. The left hated it for environmental reasons and the right hated it because it was nosing out traditional power sources.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 4:11 pm to Lakeboy7
quote:
right hated it because it was nosing out traditional power sources.
The "right:" has always supported nuclear power. Its the environmentalist that fricked it up.
Those bitches could have saved lots of carbon dioxide being deposited in the atmosphere but were too retarded.
This post was edited on 10/23/25 at 4:13 pm
Posted on 10/23/25 at 4:13 pm to Shexter
I've got a very stupid question, but who exactly is asking for ai to do everything going forward? It's not me, that I can tell you.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 4:13 pm to RogerTheShrubber
quote:
environmentalist that fricked it up.
Right it was the flowers in the hair crowd that came with the regulation.
You either need to sober up or have another one. I dont think it matters either way.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 4:24 pm to Lakeboy7
quote:
Right it was the flowers in the hair crowd that came with the regulation.
Three Mile Island scared Democrats because they are emotional reactionaries, and held the trifecta at the time of POTUS and control of congress.
But Democrats are terrified of everything.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 5:24 pm to Shexter
I bet that's a loud arse place.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 5:28 pm to Indefatigable
quote:
there was that one time in Pennsylvania where nothing happened
Chernoble Russia says “hold my beer”….
Posted on 10/23/25 at 5:29 pm to Shexter
Does this mean that gas prices are going up?
Posted on 10/23/25 at 5:30 pm to Spankum
quote:
Chernoble Russia says “hold my beer”….
Posted on 10/23/25 at 5:31 pm to Spankum
Chernobyl was built with its own self destruct button on a ticking clock.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 5:36 pm to RogerTheShrubber
quote:
The "right:" has always supported nuclear power. Its the environmentalist that fricked it up.
Biden spiffed the nuclear subsidy. Enviro-nazis aren't why we don't have nuclear. All our neighbors are.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 5:37 pm to Lakeboy7
quote:you ain’t lying when you say those hippie boomers fricked everything up. Still are
Right it was the flowers in the hair crowd that came with the regulation.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 5:53 pm to Shexter
quote:
Aeroderivative turbines run in simple-cycle mode, burning fuel without capturing waste heat, which puts them well below the efficiency of combined-cycle plants.
Yeah, such turbines were never about fuel efficiency, they are extremely high power-to-weight ratio machines and they burn fuel at prodigious rates. 40MW turbine is pulling fuel at 45 GPM, or roughly a bit more than four times faster than a gas pump delivers fuel.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 6:43 pm to Spankum
quote:
Chernoble Russia says “hold my beer”….
Nothing happened at three mile island specifically because we weren’t stupid like the Soviets. We had and have actual safeguards. Both physical and procedural/mechanical
Chernobyl (which is in Ukraine, not Russia btw) didn’t even have containment structures around the reactors. Their reactor design also fricking sucked and they practically chose to have what happened, happen. Their scientists knew it was possible.
What happened at Chernobyl has never been realistically possible at any nuclear power station in the US.
This post was edited on 10/23/25 at 6:49 pm
Posted on 10/23/25 at 6:54 pm to Shexter
Texas, Houston area, added 7 or 8 power plants with the LM600's to put power on the grid in the last 5 years.
Article checks out.
And they do startup in 10 minutes.
And they are winterized.
Article checks out.
And they do startup in 10 minutes.
And they are winterized.
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