GE Vernova and US start-up Blue Energy have announced a collaboration, which aims to develop the world’s first “gas-plus-nuclear” power plant in Texas. This 2.5 GW facility is designed to meet surging electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centres and advanced manufacturing.
The project uses a phased “gas-to-nuclear” delivery model to provide near-term power while the nuclear components clear licensing. The g phase uses two GE Vernova 7HA.02 gas turbines to provide approximately 1 GWe of power. The nuclear phase transitions to approximately 1.5 GWe of nuclear power as GE Vernova Hitachi (GVH) BWRX-300 small modular reactors (SMRs) come online at Blue Energy’s first planned site in Texas, subject to a final investment decision in 2027.
To support project advancement, the companies signed a slot reservation agreement for site delivery in 2029 of two GE Vernova 7HA.02 gas turbines for early site energisation. Blue Energy will use prefabricated modules built offsite and transported via barge to the site, an approach recently approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to accelerate timelines.
By collaborating with GE Vernova, we’re bringing together critical infrastructure, safe reactor technology, and a financeable delivery model,” said Blue Energy CEO and Co-Founder Jake Jurewicz. “Blue Energy is focused on building safe, nuclear power you can plan around – with plants planned to be built on time, on budget, and at scale. Together, Blue Energy and GE Vernova can unlock a blueprint for how to scale nuclear energy, power American communities, and fuel global AI leadership faster, more affordably, and without burdening ratepayers.”
“Innovative projects like this one will help advance the future of nuclear power and meet the surging demand for electricity,” said GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik. “Together with our customers, GE Vernova currently generates nearly 50 percent of electricity produced in the US today, and we are proud that our collaboration with Blue Energy and others in the entrepreneurial community will play an increasingly important role in accelerating America’s next era of energy leadership.”
The companies are also exploring optimal methods for contracting and offsite construction of large power plant modules consistent with GVH’s BWRX-300 design to reduce capital costs and to accelerate offsite pre-fabrication supply chains. Because the majority of Blue Energy’s plants will be built offsite and barged to final locations, similar to recent LNG terminal builds, the model could provide thousands of jobs from existing fabrication yards and shipyards to plant communities and states across the supply chain.
“Combining our industry-leading HA gas turbines with the BWRX-300, the only small modular nuclear reactor under construction in the Western world today, provides an effective solution aimed to meet the demands of rapid AI expansion in the United States while decreasing time to power,” said Eric Gray, CEO of GE Vernova’s Power Segment.
“Nuclear power will play an important role in unleashing more affordable, reliable and secure electricity to the American people,” said Department of Energy (DOE) Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Reactors Dr Rian Bahran. “Collaborations between American companies like this can help strengthen our nuclear supply chain and assert America’s global dominance in exporting and scaling an American technology.”
NRC approval of Blue Energy’s prefabricated modular approach is expected to accelerate deployment of new nuclear power with the potential to reduce the conventional 10-year plus nuclear timeline by at least five years. This will slash time to power to 48 months or less by energising turbines with a natural gas bridge that converts to nuclear power. It aims to unlock project financing on a large fraction of the capex for a first-of-a kind power project.
Further agreements are expected in the near future under which GE Vernova, in collaboration with Blue Energy, will perform site preliminary safety analysis work as well as other detailed and necessary development and characterisation work to support Blue Energy’s nuclear construction permit application. The company then will apply to NRC for a construction permit in 2027.
Blue Energy says it could begin early site works on its first planned project in Texas in 2026. It is located along the Victoria Barge Canal, a site strategically chosen for its proximity to existing energy infrastructure and its protection from coastal weather events. The development is centred at the Texas Logistics Center in the Port of Victoria. The project is explicitly designed to fuel the Crusoe AI Factory campus, a 1,600-acre data centre development also located at the Port of Victoria.
GE Vernova gas turbines are expected to provide approximately 1 GWe to the site by 2030 before the steam supply is switched and ramped up to approximately 1.5 GWe of nuclear power as GE Vernova’s BWRX-300s come online by 2032.
Blue Energy (Blue Energy Global Inc) was spun out of MIT’s Nuclear Science & Engineering Department in 2023. The company is based in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and Washington, DC. Blue Energy does not design its own reactors but acts as a “reactor-agnostic” developer, partnering with existing vendors to house their proven technology within Blue Energy’s proprietary, modular plant architecture. Blue Energy focuses on solving nuclear energy’s “construction problem” rather than its “physics problem” targeting the 93% of nuclear costs typically tied to on-site construction, interest, and overhead.
Components are built centrally in existing shipyards using mature supply chains, then transported via barge to coastal or river-adjacent sites. By using fixed-price manufacturing contracts and phased construction, the aim is to attract private capital that has traditionally avoided the risk of bespoke, multi-year nuclear builds.
Their architecture places reactors inside large underwater monopiles, providing passive safety by ensuring constant access to a massive cooling reservoir. The reactor is housed inside an extra-large (XL) steel monopile, a technology adapted from offshore wind turbine foundations. These cylindrical steel tubes are manufactured in standard shipyards and transported via barge to the site.
The monopiles are installed into the seabed or riverbed, with the reactor core and primary systems lowered into the tube. The reactor sits approximately 12 feet (3.7 metres) underwater, isolating it from the rest of the plant. For cooling, Blue Energy replaces complex, active pumping systems with natural heat sinking. Because the monopile is submerged in a large body of water (ocean or river), the reactor has constant, direct access to an “infinite” reservoir of cooling water.
In an emergency or total power loss (station blackout), the surrounding water naturally absorbs decay heat through the steel walls of the monopile. This process relies on natural convection and conduction, requiring no pumps, electricity, or human intervention. The design ensures the reactor can shut down and cool itself indefinitely using the surrounding environment as the ultimate heat sink.
Placing the reactor underwater and inside a heavy steel tube protects it from external threats, such as aircraft impacts or extreme weather events like hurricanes and tsunamis. By separating the nuclear core (vendor-provided) from the civil structure (Blue Energy’s monopile), the company can use NRC-certified reactors while standardising the rest of the plant as a manufactured product
In April, the company raised $380m in financing led by VXI Capital, with support from Engine Ventures, At One Ventures, and Tamarack Global. This brought their total funding to approximately $425m.
