据《纽约时报》周二报道，由于电网接入和新涡轮机的排队等待长达数年，一些人工智能数据中心开始利用改装喷气发动机自行发电。
Stuck in years-long lines for grid connections and new turbines, some AI data centers are making their own electricity with converted jet engines, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
这些从退役飞机上拆解、改装为燃烧天然气的发动机，并非任何人心目中永久电厂的理想选择。但它们也是电力供应已落后于人工智能建设热潮多远的又一迹象。
The engines, pulled from retired aircraft and rebuilt to burn natural gas, aren’t anyone’s idea of a permanent power plant. But they’re another sign of how far power supply has fallen behind the AI buildout.
对于陷入排队困境的公司而言，改装喷气发动机的主要吸引力在于其投入运行的速度。“一切关乎尽快获得电力，”Rystad Energy分析师奥德·马丁森对《纽约时报》表示。有了喷气动力装置，“他们可以在24个月内让数据中心投入运行，”他说。
For companies stuck in those lines, the main draw of converted jet engines is how quickly the engines can be up and running. “It’s all about getting power as fast as possible,” Rystad Energy analyst Audun Martinsen told the Times. With jet-powered units, “they can have a data center running in 24 months,” he said.
相比之下，根据国际能源署的数据，在弗吉尼亚州北部将100兆瓦电力接入电网大约需要七年时间。三菱重工——全球顶级发电设备制造商之一——的一位高管上周告诉彭博社，预计大部分电力产能将在2031年前投入使用。
Hooking up 100 megawatts to the grid in Northern Virginia, by comparison, takes about seven years, according to the International Energy Agency. Most power capacity is expected to come on by 2031, an executive at Mitsubishi Power, one of the world’s top makers of power generation equipment told Bloomberg last week.
在某些情况下，这些延误已导致一些数据中心运营商失去业务。上个月，微软退出了Nscale位于英国劳顿数据中心的锚定客户角色，此前当地公用事业公司表示，无法在2030年代初至中期前提供足够电力。
In some cases, these delays are already costing some data center operators business. Last month, Microsoft pulled out as the anchor customer for Nscale’s data center in Loughton, England, after the local utility said it couldn’t deliver enough power until the early-to-mid 2030s.
据《纽约时报》援引州政府许可和卫星图像报道，埃隆·马斯克的xAI是已在使用这些发动机的公司之一，已在密西西比州安装了八台改装喷气发动机涡轮机，以帮助为其位于孟菲斯的Colossus 2数据中心供电。这些装置来自ProEnergy公司，该公司改装的是波音喷气式飞机常用的通用电气发动机。
Elon Musk’s xAI is among the companies already using the engines, having installed eight converted jet-engine turbines in Mississippi to help power its Colossus 2 data center in Memphis, the Times reported, citing state permits and satellite imagery. The units come from ProEnergy, which rebuilds a GE engine commonly found on Boeing jets.
2025年，OpenAI效仿马斯克，在其位于得克萨斯州阿比林的首个Stargate站点部署了燃气轮机。总部位于丹佛、专门建设人工智能数据中心的初创公司Crusoe正在建设该阿比林园区，并于4月订购了13台ProEnergy的改装装置。
In 2025, OpenAI followed Musk’s lead with gas turbines at its first Stargate site in Abilene, Texas. Crusoe, a Denver-based startup that builds AI data centers, is constructing that Abilene campus and ordered 13 of ProEnergy’s converted units in April.
9月，Crusoe退出了一项价值12.5亿美元、向Boom Supersonic购买29台天然气燃气轮机的交易。Boom Supersonic是一家正在研发超音速客机的初创公司，同时也开始销售该客机发动机的一个版本，作为数据中心的发电设备。当时，Crusoe的一位发言人告诉TechCrunch，该公司仍计划使用燃气轮机。目前，特朗普政府正在增加压力，鼓励数据中心自行发电。
In September, Crusoe walked away from a $1.25 billion deal to buy 29 natural gas turbines from Boom Supersonic, a startup developing a supersonic passenger jet that has also begun selling a version of that jet’s engine as a power plant for data centers. A Crusoe spokesperson told TechCrunch at the time that the company still plans to use turbines. Currently the Trump administration is adding to the pressure by encouraging data centers to generate their own electricity.
不过，改装喷气式发动机也存在权衡：据《纽约时报》报道，与为传统燃气电厂设计的燃气轮机相比，它们效率更低、污染更大，且需要更多台数才能产生相同数量的电力。这最终可能使改装喷气式发动机仅成为一种短期权宜之计，一些专家表示，效率和环境问题可能在一两年内变得更加重要。
Converted jet engines come with trade-offs, though: They’re less efficient and pollute more than turbines designed for conventional gas plants and it takes more of them to make the same amount of power, according to the Times. That may ultimately make converted jet engines a short-term play with some experts saying that efficiency and environmental concerns may grow in importance in a year or two.