By Emily Russell
When Scott Strazik became head of General Electric's energy business, GE Vernova, in 2021, the electricity business felt very different than it does today.
"This was a pretty boring industry if I am most honest: primarily regulated customers with very flat demand," Strazik recently told Barron's editor at large Andy Serwer in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
All of that has changed in the past two years. Electricity consumption in advanced economies has exploded since 2023, growing 230 terra-watt hours in 2024 alone, according to the International Energy Agency.
"We probably haven't seen an analogous period of time like this since 1945," Strazik said.
As productivity boomed after World War II, the U.S. doubled its electric power capacity every decade. Electricity production growth slowed in the 1970s and essentially plateaued in the 1990s. Strazik thinks globalization contributed to America's declining rate of electricity production. Less domestic manufacturing means less demand for power.
That trend is reversing as the U.S. decouples from major trading partners, he said. "That decoupled world requires new manufacturing in the U.S. That is driving a lot of demand," Strazik added.
More than $210 billion was spent on building manufacturing facilities in the U.S. last year, double the amount spent in 2021, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Strazik said he believes that manufacturing growth, paired with the energy needs of AI data centers, has set the energy industry up for an "investment supercycle."
GE Vernova is well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunity. Its equipment is already used to generate about 25% of the world's electricity and 55% of the electricity in the U.S., according to Strazik.
Most of that electricity is gas-powered, but GE Vernova is diversifying its energy sources for the future. It has 57,000 wind turbines in the U.S., which supply half of the country's wind power, Stazik said, with the company in the early stages of bringing more nuclear power to North America.
GE Vernova is building its first small modular nuclear reactor in Ontario. Small reactors take up little land -- the nuclear combustion happens underground -- but can produce 300 megawatts, enough to power 300,000 homes a day. In November, Japan and the U.S. agreed to spend $100 billion on small nuclear reactors provided by GE Vernova and Hitachi.
GE Vernova's first reactor in the U.S. will be in Tennessee, funded by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest public energy provider in the country. Strazik said that he hopes to start building that reactor by 2027, but it will take until 2031 before the facility produces usable power.
GE Vernova is also investing an "immense amount" of capital into decarbonizing gas by capturing carbon emitted from gas production and injecting it back into cavities in the ground, Strazik said. That process was adapted from existing technology created with funding by the Defense Department, which asked GE to build an air-to water program so troops in remote areas could create their own water.
In April 2024, General Electric split to form GE Vernova, GE Aerospace, and GE HealthCare. At the time, GE Vernova was priced at just a fifth of the value of GE. Its share price has since soared about 400% -- 10 times that of the broader market.
"This was the right play. There is no question about it," Strazik said of the breakup. "There is a lot to be said for focus."
Part of the market's appreciation for GE Vernova, Strazik believes, is because energy-focused investors know their capital will be used in a more targeted way. "I think that is working great for our customers and shareholders," Strazik said.
Undeniably, GE Vernova's positive stock performance is also because of the unprecedented boost in electricity demand: 25% over the next few years in the U.S. alone, the consulting firm ICF International projects.
"How to meet that demand will be solved by companies that can industrialize at scale," Strazik said. "We at least have a shot."
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February 08, 2026 01:00 ET (06:00 GMT)
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