Blackstone and Halliburton Invest $1 Billion in VoltaGrid to Accelerate AI Data Center Power
One of the world’s biggest investment firms and a historic oil and gas service entity together are banking on speed-to-power to meet racing electrification demand from digital infrastructure.
Venture capital funds managed by private equity giant Blackstone and energy services provider Halliburton are investing $1 billion in behind-the-meter power developer VoltaGrid.
VoltaGrid, which initially developed electrification and on-site decarbonization strategies at oil and gas production sites, is helping lead a massive shift to supply multiple-resource distributed energy for data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) factories. The microgrid industry is accelerating a “speed to power” movement which aims to install prime power on-site or co-located without waiting on interconnection delays.
Funding infusion and acquiring manufacturing capacity
The $1 billion investment comes from funds managed with Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities group and Halliburton Co., the latter of which has worked with VoltaGrid in the past. The investment includes $775 million in primary capital raise and a $225 million secondary purchase from existing investors.
“This partnership with Blackstone is a powerful endorsement of the platform we have built and the role VoltaGrid is playing in delivering the energy infrastructure of the AI era,” VoltaGrid founder and CEO Nathan Ough said in a Blackstone announcement.
VoltaGrid also announced it was acquiring longtime supplier Propell Energy Technology.
Propell has worked with VoltaGrid on technology development and is a key partner in manufacturing the high-inertia QPac system developed for AI data centers. Propell brings 1,000 employees from across the U.S. and Canada engaged in research, development, manufacturing, integration, service and sales.
“The acquisition of Propell adds proven engineering and integration capabilities that will further extend our technology and operational leadership as we continue to scale,” VoltaGrid CEO Ough added.
The deal is expected to close by this summer. VoltaGrid will immediately invest in expanding Propell’s automated manufacturing center in Granbury, Texas. This expansion will add two new facilities which will bring combined reciprocating engine and turbine capacity up to about 300 MW per month.
”VoltaGrid is a highly differentiated platform addressing one of the most important infrastructure needs of the AI era: reliable, rapidly deployable power.” Blackstone managing director William Nicholson said.
Scaling GWs to meet hyperscale time table
At the recent Microgrid Knowledge Conference in Orlando, VoltaGrid’s Dave Bell lined out the company’s 7+ GW pipeline of projects coming before 2030. This capacity growth exceeds utilities as data center hyperscalers seek speed to power.
“The big thing for us is to help the United States win the AI race and making sure AI stays American,” Bell, who is VoltaGrid’s vice president of microgrid development, said in a keynote session at MGK Conference.
Doing that quickly requires building out natural gas capacity soon, with renewables, expanded transmission and, eventually, small modular reactors playing roles in meeting AI and electrification demand in a diversified way.
“I don't think there's a silver bullet,” Bell said. “I think it's just a multitude of different solutions solving the same problem.”
About the Author
Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor
Managing Editor
For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].
Rod Walton has spent 17 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.
Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World.
EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.