Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises Inc. on Sept. 10 announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Denham Capital’s Sustainable Infrastructure arm to jointly pursue opportunities to generate power to support the increased demand from data centers in the U.S. and Europe.
This will include technologies for coal power generation or natural gas conversion projects as well as back-end environmental technology.
Through the partnership, substantial investments will be made to convert coal-fired power plants to cleaner natural gas solutions, which represent a crucial bridge for the clean energy transition. Natural gas offers cost-effective and rapid deployment to support the development of data centers until renewables can match the pace of electricity demand growth, B&W said.
"The partnership combines Denham’s expertise in developing, building and operating large-scale power plants across six different continents, and B&W’s many decades of industry-leading experience in coal power generation and the conversion of coal-fired power plants to use natural gas. Denham and B&W are ideally positioned to build the sustainable infrastructure required to meet the growing demand for reliable, flexible and affordable power solutions for data center developers," B&W said.
Justin DeAngelis, Global Head of Sustainable Infrastructure at Denham Capital, commented, “Data centers have created an unprecedented and immediate demand for power generation, the likes of which we have not seen in nearly two decades. Time-to-power is a key focal point for data center developers and hyperscalers, and this partnership is one differentiated tool we are looking to utilize to meet market needs.”
“We are delighted to partner with B&W to offer reliable, fast, low-cost and sustainable power solutions to the data center market, leveraging B&W’s nearly 160 years of expertise in power boilers, and bringing Denham’s 10 GW of experience in developing, constructing or operating power generation,” DeAngelis said. “Given the scale of this opportunity, Denham will shortly announce a dedicated portfolio company focused on delivering these solutions. It is vital we leverage existing power fleets, decarbonize, and increase the quality and security of our power generation systems.”
"As a worldwide supplier of combustion and environmental technologies for a wide variety of fuels, B&W has the expertise and experience to plan, manage and execute large and complex power generation upgrades and fuel conversion projects as well as providing the continued parts and services to maintain these fleets for years to come," it said.
