Doosan Enerbility is exporting domestically produced gas turbines for power generation to the US market, the home of gas turbines. With the advent of the AI era, the power demand for data centers is surging, raising expectations that the company will continue to open 'export paths' in the essential power supply and transmission facilities and air conditioning markets for server cooling in these facilities.

Doosan Enerbility announced on the 13th that it has signed a contract to supply two large 380MW gas turbines to a renowned US big tech company. This export to the US, the 'home of gas turbines,' is the result of over six years of development and an investment of more than KRW 1 trillion in R&D that began in 2013.

The gas turbine generator market, which has a structure similar to that of aircraft engines, has been dominated by the US, Germany, and Japan, making exports challenging. General Electric (now GE Vernova) holds most of the US market, and globally, GE, Germany's Siemens, and Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries account for 98% of the total market share.

However, the surge in power demand from AI data centers is opening opportunities for Korea. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the power demand for data centers, which was 470 TWh last year, is expected to nearly double to 945 TWh by 2030. The IEA forecasts that the expected power demand in 2030 will account for 3% of the global power demand at that time. Consequently, the overall power infrastructure market related to AI data centers is expected to grow from USD 20.2 billion (approximately KRW 28.8 trillion) to USD 42.2 billion (approximately KRW 60.2 trillion) during the same period.

A representative from Doosan Enerbility stated, "Due to the nature of data centers that require stable supply of large-scale power, gas turbine generators are gaining attention for their efficiency," and added, "Maintenance services are as important as supply, so we will continue to build trust through our US service specialist subsidiary."

In addition to gas turbine generators, the market for small modular reactors (SMRs) and substation and transformer markets for data centers is also expected to grow significantly. Doosan Enerbility is collaborating with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, US-based Amazon, and X-energy to develop and pioneer the market for SMRs for data centers. HD Hyundai Electric and Hyosung Heavy Industries are also expanding their market by signing contracts to supply transmission infrastructure, including 765kV ultra-high voltage transformers, worth a total of KRW 200 billion to the US market.

The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) market, which manages the heat generated by data center servers, is also gaining attention. As the amount of data processed increases and speeds up, managing the heat generated by servers has become a key challenge that determines the success or failure of AI competition.

In May, Samsung Electronics acquired Germany's FlaktGroup, which has strengths in the data center cooling business, for EUR 1.5 billion (KRW 2.48 trillion). LG Electronics also agreed to supply chillers (cooling units) after meeting with Microsoft (MS) Chairman Satya Nadella in March, and last month signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to supply cooling solutions with a Saudi data center company.

LG Electronics and SK Innovation have also signed an MOU for business cooperation related to data centers. They plan to develop products and services that reduce power consumption and lower heat generation in data centers by combining LG Electronics' cooling solutions with SK Innovation's energy management solutions and battery technology.

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