Musk’s faster path to more gas turbines comes with pollution problem

Elon Musk revealed SpaceX is building an in-house foundry in Bastrop, Texas, to cast turbine blades and vanes, aiming to accelerate natural gas turbine production by up to 18 months. This move addresses a key bottleneck in gas turbine manufacturing, which is critical for supplementing solar power and meeting growing AI data center energy demands. The foundry aims to alleviate supply constraints caused by the complex casting process of turbine blades that operate at extreme temperatures.