Ansaldo Returns to US Gas Turbines With an Eight-Unit Order for Pacifico Energy’s Texas Data Centers
- AI Energy Demand Data Centers News
Marin Holt
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- Turbines Ordered: Eight AE64.3A
- Unit Rating: 78 MW simple cycle
- Order Size (POWER estimate): about 624 MW
- Four-OEM Backlog: 157.6 GW
- First Deliveries: 2027
Ansaldo Energia has taken an order from Pacifico Energy for eight AE64.3A gas turbines and their generators. It is the Italian manufacturer’s first new-build power sale in the United States in more than thirty years. Ansaldo is supplying the turbines in a 60 Hz configuration. They will support Texas power projects built around data center load.
Ansaldo announced the order on July 20, 2026. First deliveries start in 2027. Ansaldo states no total capacity. POWER magazine puts the order at about 624 MW nominal. That is the publication’s own arithmetic on the model’s 78 MW simple-cycle rating.
Pacifico Energy is a California-based energy infrastructure developer. POWER identifies two Texas projects in its pipeline. GW Ranch sits in Pecos County. Fort Spunky occupies a 563-acre site in Hood County, near central Dallas. Neither company has named the site for each unit.
The order matters because of who could not take it
POWER counts at least 157.6 GW in firm gas turbine orders or contract backlog at four original equipment manufacturers. The count comes from those manufacturers’ own disclosures in July and August 2026.
Buyers who cannot win a slot from an incumbent now look further afield. That is the opening Ansaldo walks through. The company says its Genoa factory raised production volumes in 2025. It also started a capacity-growth program for 2026 and 2027.
The AE64.3A is an F-class machine. More than 70 units run worldwide, and the fleet has logged over four million equivalent operating hours. That service record is real. None of it sits in the US new-build market Ansaldo left three decades ago.
A returning supplier has to rebuild a parts and service footprint, not only ship hardware. Ansaldo announced no US manufacturing commitment with this order. It points instead to added output at Genoa.
Why It Matters
Gas turbine supply now shapes where data centers get built, not just what they cost. A 157.6 GW backlog across four suppliers means a developer without a slot waits. A developer who waits cannot promise a load date to a hyperscaler.
Ansaldo’s return widens the field by one credible F-class supplier. That is a real change in a market that has run on three names. Buyers should still ask a vendor returning after thirty years how it will service the fleet in North America. Read 2027 as a first delivery date, not as a finished plant.
Critical Perspective
The order is real. Its size is not published. Ansaldo gives no total capacity, and the 624 MW figure in circulation is POWER magazine’s arithmetic on a nameplate rating rather than a number either company has confirmed. Simple-cycle nameplate is also not what a site delivers on a hot Texas afternoon.
One eight-unit order does not move a 157.6 GW backlog either. That backlog is the four incumbents’ own order book. A new entrant relieves it only by repeating the sale, and Ansaldo has announced one customer.
The harder question is service, not supply. Ansaldo left the US new-build market more than thirty years ago and has committed to no US manufacturing alongside this order. It points to added output at Genoa instead. A buyer taking first delivery in 2027 is also buying a decades-long maintenance relationship from a supplier with no announced North American footprint to support it. The question worth asking is what a parts lead time looks like in 2035, not in 2027.
Sources
- POWER Magazine, “Ansaldo Returns to U.S. Gas Turbine Market as Equipment Crunch Widens Supplier Field,” September 1, 2026
- Power Engineering, “Ansaldo Energia re-enters U.S. power generation market,” September 3, 2026
- Ansaldo Energia press release, July 20, 2026
- Offshore Technology, “Ansaldo returns to US market with Texas gas turbine order”
