A bit of background to point up the importance of a couple recent posts:
May 12 - Nuclear: "Canada to Build $15 Billion Modular Nuclear Plant, First in G-7" (GEV)
May 23 - "Trump plots ‘Manhattan Project 2’ in nuclear power push" (CCJ; GEV)
From CNBC, November 30, 2024:
- GE Vernova’s small modular reactor, BWRX-300, could play a role in developing more nuclear power over the next decade.
- The General Electric spinoff is targeting more than $2 billion in annual revenue from its small reactor business by the mid-2030s.
- The company sees demand for as many as 57 small reactors in total across its target markets in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe by 2035.
- In addition to active conversations with utilities to build an order book, GE Vernova is also seeing interest from major tech companies.
GE Vernova is aiming to deploy small nuclear reactors across the developed world over the next decade, staking out a leadership position in a budding technology that could play a central role in meeting surging electricity demand and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
The company’s small modular reactor, or SMR, is designed to reduce the cost of building new nuclear plants, said Nicole Holmes, chief commercial officer at GE Vernova’s nuclear unit GE Hitachi.
GE Vernova is the spinoff of General Electric’s former energy business. The company’s stock has more than doubled since listing on the New York Stock Exchange last April, with investors seeing the Cambridge, Mass.-based company playing a key role in the future of the power industry through a portfolio of divisions that span nuclear, natural gas, wind and carbon capture.
The U.S. government wants to triple nuclear power by 2050 to shore up an electric grid that is under growing pressure from surging power demand. But large nuclear projects, in the U.S. at least, are notoriously plagued by multi-billion dollar budgets, cost overruns, delayed construction timelines and, sometimes, cancellations.
“Affordability has been the real challenge for nuclear through the many years,” Holmes told CNBC. “We’re beginning to crack that at this point.”
Simpler design
GE Vernova’s SMR, the BWRX-300, has a simpler design with fewer components and less concrete and steel compared to a larger nuclear plant, Holmes said. The reactor might cost somewhere in the range of $2 billion to $4 billion to build compared to $10 billion to $15 billion for a large nuclear plant, Holmes said.
The plant generates 300 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 200,000 U.S. households. The average reactor in the U.S. fleet has about 1,000 megawatts of power, enough for more than 700,000 homes. The smaller size offers more flexibility in terms of location, she said.
“You could put four of these on a site and get the same output as you would from a single large reactor,” the executive said. “You can have one started, deploying energy, making money while you build out others. It gives you a lot of optionality,” she said.
GE Vernova is targeting more than $2 billion in annual revenue from its small reactor business by the mid-2030s. That compares with total company revenue of $33.2 billion last year. GE Vernova sees demand for as many as 57 small reactors in total across its target markets in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe by 2035.
To hit that revenue target, GE Vernova would need to ship between three to four reactors per year, according to an October research note from Bank of America. The company could capture a 33% market share in its target markets, according to the bank.
“We’re underway building a strong order book in those target markets,” Holmes said. “A lot of the buyers in these early stages will be utilities.”
GE Vernova is also talking to major tech companies, which Holmes declined to name, that are showing a growing interest in nuclear power to meet electricity demand from their artificial intelligence data centers....
....MUCH MORE
Of course GEV is the go-to for natural gas fired turbines:
"How AI energy demand in 2025 will put natural gas in the spotlight" (GEV)
"GE Vernova to export $14.2 billion in turbines, energy solutions to Saudi Arabia, US says" (GEV)
as well as setting you up with industrial-scale wind turbines should they be on your shopping list:
"GE Vernova Hits A High As Troubled Wind Energy Unit Improves" (GEV)
I'm not sure the wind business is much of a driver for either the company or the stock, at least not this year. As we've mentioned, GEV is involved, one way or another, with something on the order of 30% of the world's electricity production. You want a gas-turbine co-gen set-up for your data center? Just call the sales peeps from General Electric, they've been doing it since 1882.*
