By Brian Martucci of UtilityDive
GE Vernova posted double-digit revenue and order growth in the second quarter, driven once again by continued strong performance in its Power and Electrification business segments. Those segments, respectively, produce and service gas, hydro and nuclear power generation equipment; and commercial electrical equipment such as transformers and switchgears.
GE Vernova’s beleaguered third segment, Wind, saw orders fall sharply amid persistent softness in U.S. demand for onshore wind turbines and blades.
“We remain focused on what we can control,” CEO Scott Strazik said on a Wednesday morning earnings call, alluding to the economic, regulatory and legal challenges facing its wind business.
By the numbers -- GE Vernova Q2 2026
Strazik said GE Vernova expects its combined backlog of gas turbine orders and slot reservations to reach 125 GW by the end of the year. The company shipped 3 GW of turbines and signed 20 GW of orders and slot reservations, more than half of which are for the hulking HA-class turbines that customers typically run at higher capacity factors, he said.
Strazik said those customers are increasingly diverse, spanning about 100 entities in 26 countries. About 80% are “traditional” customers like utilities and 20% are data center customers, he said.
Like Siemens and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, its main competitors in heavy-duty gas turbine manufacturing, GE Vernova continues to book reservations four to five years out.
GE Vernova is taking reservations for 2031 deliveries now and is on track to “be more than halfway contracted [for 2031] by the end of the year,” Strazik said. But despite “healthy discussions” with customers about potential 2032 bookings, “I would say we need more time before we can articulate the timing of contracting in ’32,” he added.
Strazik alluded multiple times on the call to “strong” pricing for GE Vernova’s gas power equipment. Though he did not give specific figures for turbines sold in the second quarter, an analysis shared in a Wednesday note by Moses Sutton, senior analyst with BNP Paribas Equity Research, estimated about $790/kW for heavy-duty turbines, $950/kW for HA-class combined-cycle turbines and $1,800/kW for aeroderivative turbines.
Most investors would read Strazik’s 125-GW year-end backlog guidance as conservative “given management’s track record of under-guiding and over-delivering,” Sutton said. In December, Strazik said GE Vernova expected to end 2025 with an 80-GW gas turbine backlog; the actual figure was 83 GW.
For 2026, the market is likely looking for an actual year-end backlog of 130 GW to 140 GW, Sutton said.
As for GE Vernova’s plan to expand annual turbine manufacturing capacity to 30 GW by 2030, up from 20 GW today, Sutton said “the jury’s out.” Strazik’s suggestion that the company needs more time to firm up its 2032 pipeline may be a sign of “peak momentum emerging” in the company’s gas growth story, he said.
‘Early stages of a multi-decade growth opportunity’Continuing a trend from recent GE Vernova earnings calls, Strazik sounded enthusiastic about the Electrification segment’s prospects amid what he called “this electricity investment supercycle.”
“The long-cycle electric power industry is in the early stages of a multi-decade growth opportunity and we are well positioned to create substantial value,” Strazik said.
Company figures show its overall Electrification backlog has broken above $40 billion, helped along by the completion of its acquisition of the remaining stake in GE Prolec, formerly a joint venture with Xignux, a Mexican industrial conglomerate. The merger was a factor in the company’s booking of around $800 million in U.S. transformer orders this quarter, Strazik said.
Broad-based load growth, utilities’ and data center customers’ increasing awareness of the need for grid-stabilizing equipment, and national security imperatives are all driving demand for GE Vernova’s electrical systems and components, Strazik said.
In a Wednesday investor note on GE Vernova, Julien Dumoulin-Smith, an equities analyst with investment bank Jefferies, said the company’s ongoing development of solid-state transformers and uninterruptible medium-voltage transformers set it up to benefit from anticipated data center demand for those cutting-edge electrical components.
But in a separate Wednesday note covering a range of companies in the power and electricity sector, Dumoulin-Smith cited community opposition and labor shortages as key dampeners of data center-related load growth that “place the integrity of the power supercycle into question.” Jefferies’s base case remains that data center energization accelerates in the coming years, “but not without hiccups,” he said.
Possible green shoots for wind despite ongoing industry troublesThough the U.S. wind power industry remains under pressure from the Trump administration’s trade and energy policy, Strazik said the administration’s forthcoming guidance on Section 232 tariffs could provide more “order clarity” in the second half of 2026. At the moment, tariff-related uncertainty is impacting onshore wind development, Strazik said.
Independent energy analysts are cautiously optimistic that the sector will rebound in the years ahead. Wood Mackenzie boosted its five-year outlook for U.S. greenfield wind development by 5% this month as developers raced to capitalize on expiring federal tax credits and contracted corporate demand for clean energy surged.
“Large technology companies are turning to wind power as an additional energy source to meet their growing needs,” Wood Mackenzie said in a July 20 note.
Wood Mackenzie and Strazik both said a coming repowering cycle — owners of aging wind farms replacing older turbines with more powerful units — would support demand for wind power equipment well into the 2030s.
“In our install base in the U.S., there are approximately 10 gigawatts of units with repowering potential — projects that have already qualified for the new production tax credits,” Strazik said.
Strazik did not directly mention an ongoing legal dispute between his company and one of its wind customers, the 800-MW Vineyard Wind project off the Massachusetts coast.
GE Renewables, a GE Vernova subsidiary, threatened to walk away from the nearly-complete project after Vineyard Wind withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to offset what it called “catastrophic injury” stemming from a 2024 blade break. Vineyard Wind sued GE Vernova in April to block it from exiting its supply agreement.
In a regulatory filing this week, GE Vernova said it had “successfully completed the installation of all remaining wind turbines at the Vineyard Wind project” and has moved into the commissioning phase.
“As we work through the final stages of the project, we are working with our customer to resolve outstanding claims and counterclaims,” the filing said.
Tyler Durden Sun, 07/26/2026 - 14:00Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, a Democrat, was indicted by an Oahu grand jury on Friday on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, and falsifying candidate committee reports. The charges stem from an alleged 2022 scheme, dating to her time as a powerful state lawmaker, to steer state money toward COVID-19 testing contracts during the pandemic. Hawaii News Now reported that legal experts are calling it the biggest bribery scandal in state history.
Luke was one of five people named in the 12-count indictment. The others: Ryan Yamane, a former state representative and ex-director of the Department of Human Services; Tobi Solidum, a businessman and lobbyist; Ford Fuchigami, a Transportation Department official; and Leo Asuncion, a former chair of the state Public Utilities Commission. Luke turned herself in Friday afternoon; her bail was set at $80,000.
Gov. Josh Green did not wait for the case to develop. "The Lieutenant Governor needs to consider formally resigning to address this matter and so that the state of Hawaiʻi can move forward," Green said in a statement Friday.
The Steakhouse MeetingAccording to the indictment, Solidum was working as a lobbyist and consultant to the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii, which held a state contract to run community COVID-19 testing sites. With those contracts set to expire and dependent on the state approving emergency funding, prosecutors allege, Solidum set out to buy influence.
On Jan. 20, 2022, Luke - then chair of the powerful House Finance Committee and running for lieutenant governor - met Solidum and others in a private dining room at Morton's Steakhouse. Prosecutors allege Solidum arranged for two $5,000 checks, both made out to "Friends of Sylvia Luke," to be handed to her in an envelope she placed in her handbag. The pair discussed COVID-19 testing funding and union support for her campaign, according to the indictment - as reported by the NYT.
"By next week, we'll have 35 - so it will be halfway to our 70," Solidum told Luke, according to the filings, allegedly referring to an eventual $70,000. "Oh wow," Luke replied. "That's terrific." The day after the dinner, the indictment states, Luke ordered a House committee chair to set up a meeting with government officials to discuss emergency appropriations to the state health department.
Here the fuller record matters. The written indictment makes no direct reference to $35,000 actually changing hands, according to Honolulu Civil Beat - it alleges Solidum promised $35,000 as the first half of the $70,000. And the cash allegations in the case attach not to Luke but to two of her co-defendants: Hawaii News Now reported the indictment does not allege Luke took cash, while Yamane and Fuchigami allegedly took cash payments from Solidum.
That distinction is central to Luke's defense. She has consistently denied wrongdoing. Luke previously said she did not take "$35,000 in a paper bag," and acknowledged accepting the two $5,000 checks while denying she ever accepted a $35,000 donation - a sum that would exceed Hawaii's legal limit for campaign contributions. In a statement months ago, she said she had "never granted special favors to a contributor" and had "prized integrity and honesty above all" throughout her career.
The Informant, And The Missing MillionsThe state case was built on a federal one. Ty Cullen, a former state legislator, was arrested by federal officials in 2021 on bribery charges, then began cooperating with the FBI - wearing a wire and recording meetings, including the 2022 Morton's dinner, as Honolulu Civil Beat has reported. Earlier federal sentencing records described that interaction and identified the recipient of the $35,000 figure only as an "influential" state lawmaker, without naming anyone. The same federal probe previously sent Cullen and former state senator J. Kalani English to prison.
On Jan. 16 of this year, the U.S. Department of Justice handed Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez evidence about the unnamed legislator. Four days later, Lopez announced a state investigation. Six months on, that investigation produced Friday's indictments.
Prosecutors were pointed about who they view as the center of the scheme. "If we're looking at the most culpable individual, factually, we believe it's Ryan Yamane," said David Van Acker, a deputy attorney general, per KHON2. Yamane drew the highest bail at $150,000.
And the man who allegedly orchestrated it all is gone. The indictment states Solidum "has been continuously absent from the State of Hawaiʻi," so no bail was set for him. According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Solidum is separately under federal investigation after bankruptcy filings alleged he made off with at least $7 million from the COVID-19 testing contracts - the same contracts at the heart of the bribery case.
A Fall From GraceThe charges mark a stunning reversal for Luke, who spent more than two decades as a state representative, including 10 years running the House Finance Committee, where she oversaw the state budget and built a reputation - as Honolulu Civil Beat put it - for holding others accountable. She had been widely seen as a leading contender for governor.
Luke took an indefinite, unpaid leave of absence in April after receiving a target letter, was replaced by an acting lieutenant governor, and abandoned her re-election bid. As the state investigation unfolded, several Hawaii labor unions released statements in her support.
The political class read Friday's news through the lens of one-party control of the islands. "It goes to show that the system that's been in control of the state for so many years is following through with the perception that the public has had for so many years," said state Rep. Diamond Garcia, a Republican. A government watchdog was blunter about the puzzle at the center of the case. "If you know Sylvia's lines of power," said Camron Hurt of Common Cause Hawaii, "it's weird that she made this type of mistake."
Tyler Durden Sun, 07/26/2026 - 13:25