Hello gas, goodbye wind.
GE Vernova reported strong first quarter earnings Monday, bolstered by a rise in orders for new gas turbines and strong sales of electrical equipment such as transformers and switchgear. The growth in those segments was offset by a slowdown of GE Vernova’s wind division, where orders fell by 43 percent compared to the same time last year.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company’s earnings offer a window into the trends shaping the energy industry at a time when many observers are watching for signs of growing electricity demand due to a build-out of data centers and the impact of President Donald Trump’s policies.
Against that backdrop, GE Vernova’s gas power division reported first quarter orders of $6.2 billion, a 28 percent increase compared with the same three months last year. The order backlog for gas turbines grew to 29 gigawatts in the quarter. The company also reported an additional 21 GW of slot reservations, most of which GE Vernova said it hopes to convert to firm orders in the latter half of the year.
Data centers account for a negligible amount of the backlog but about a third of slot reservations, said GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik. The company has largely sold out manufacturing slots for new gas turbines through 2028 and is taking orders into 2030, he said, noting electricity demand is growing at a clip not seen since the post-World War II era.
“I make that point to just really reinforce that it’s very clear with the customers that there’s a need for more gas over a longer period of time,” Strazik told financial analysts.
GE Vernova, which was spun out of GE last year, reported a net income of $264 million for the first three months of the year, a reversal of the $106 million loss it reported in the same quarter of 2024. The company was helped by strong sales in its electrification division, which manufactures equipment such as switchgear. The segment reported revenues of $214 million, compared with $66 million in the first quarter of 2024.
Company officials expressed confidence they could successfully navigate Trump’s tariff blitz by moving work out of impacted countries but acknowledged they still would face between $300 million to $400 million in additional costs due to the new trade barriers. In many cases, GE Vernova officials said they have inflationary clauses in existing contracts that would enable them to pass costs on to customers. The company notably did not change its revenue or profit projections for the year, with executives expressing confidence that economic growth would continue.
Wind remains GE Vernova’s largest challenge.
Company officials noted that the onshore wind division posted its fifth straight profitable quarter. But they predicted the entire wind division would report a loss for the year, as the company continues to work through challenges in its offshore wind segment. The company reported three turbine failures last year at two offshore wind projects under construction off the United Kingdom and Massachusetts.
Strazik said offshore wind is the business that is the most vulnerable to tariffs, saying “that’s a business that we’re not going to invest money into to reallocate supply chain at this point.”
Despite the challenges, GE Vernova’s two remaining offshore wind projects have moved forward. The company had commissioned 17 units across Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts and Dogger Bank in the United Kingdom. Strazik said the company hopes to “materially complete” construction of Vineyard Wind in 2025 and “mostly complete” construction with Dogger Bank next year.
On onshore wind, he noted there are some 200 GW of projects planned in interconnection cues across the United States. But how many of those onshore wind projects actually get built is unclear, he said, noting permitting challenges and questions over Trump’s drive to repeal clean electricity tax credits.
This story also appears in Energywire.
