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Wärtsilä said data centers remain an important growth area within its Energy business

In sum – what to know:

DC demand remains strong – Wärtsilä said the speed of data center build-outs is creating unprecedented demand for off-grid facilities requiring reliable on-site power, with a dynamic pipeline of opportunities continuing to develop.

Major projects booked in Q2 – The company booked two large data center power projects during the quarter, including a 790 MW facility in Texas and a 412 MW project supporting hyperscale developments in Ohio and Texas.

Future services opportunity growing – Management said the expanding installed base of data center power assets is expected to support significant lifecycle service potential in 2030 and beyond.

Wärtsilä highlighted growing opportunities in the data center sector during its second-quarter earnings call, citing strong demand for off-grid power solutions and a growing pipeline of projects supporting AI-driven infrastructure development.

“The speed of the data center build-out is creating unprecedented demand for off-grid data center, where reliable on-site power is essential,” the firm’s CEO Håkan Agnevall said.

The company said data centers remain an important growth area within its Energy business and noted that it continues to see “a strong demand for data centers with a very dynamic pipeline of opportunities.”

During the quarter, Wärtsilä booked two major data center-related orders. The first was a 790 MW power plant for a new data center facility in Texas that will operate with 42 Wärtsilä 50SG natural gas engines. The second was a 412 MW engine power plant supporting a new hyperscale data center project in Ohio and Texas using Wärtsilä 34SG engines.

Agnevall said the growth of data center infrastructure is also expected to create a longer-term services opportunity for the company.

Wärtsilä also pointed to recent analysis from BloombergNEF, which it said identified reciprocating engines as the most cost-competitive technology option for data centers. According to Agnevall, the analysis highlighted advantages including low heat rates, efficient fuel use, low site-level emissions, and negligible water consumption.

While data centers remain an important source of demand, management emphasized that they represent only one of several growth opportunities for the Energy business, alongside balancing power and other power-generation applications.

Asked about market conditions, CFO Arjen Berends said the company continues to see strong activity levels and described the AI-related project pipeline as “very strong, though volatile.”

Rising AI infrastructure demand and ongoing grid interconnection delays are accelerating interest in behind-the-meter and off-grid power generation across the U.S. data center market, Sean Hughes, business development manager at Wärtsilä Energy, recently told RCRTech.

As hyperscale operators and AI-focused developers expand capacity requirements, access to reliable electricity is becoming a growing constraint in several U.S. markets. The issue is particularly relevant for AI workloads, which require significantly higher power density and faster deployment timelines than traditional data center infrastructure.

“I see off grid and behind the meter power becoming a permanent part of how large U.S. data centers are designed and delivered,” Hughes said. “Grid interconnection delays are a reality, and AI driven workloads are significantly increasing both power density and urgency.”

According to Hughes, developers are increasingly turning to onsite generation systems that can be deployed independently of utility interconnection timelines. He said modular engine-based systems are gaining traction because they allow operators to expand power capacity incrementally as infrastructure requirements grow.