NET Power is no longer the oxy-combustion technology story that justified the Rice Acquisition de-SPAC. After months of customer canvassing, management is building conventional natural gas generation first and treating carbon capture as a later-phase option rather than the product. The June quarter made that shift accounting-real: the company wrote the developed technology and the La Porte demonstration plant to zero. The equity now prices a West Texas land-and-equipment option, not a proprietary clean-power platform.
The commercial read from hyperscalers and data-center developers is that speed, reliability, and megawatts matter more than capture rates. That is why the company already contracted two modular gas turbines and then, after quarter-end, stepped into a suspended Saulsbury and Wartsila package for reciprocating engines sized at 123 megawatts. Combined with the earlier turbines, first-phase potential sits near 200 megawatts at Project Permian. None of that capacity has a signed offtake, a project loan, or a final investment decision. Mid-year liquidity was $310 million with almost no debt, which is the only reason this sequencing is even possible.
The counterargument is that the market already discarded the technology premium and is now paying a modest premium to remaining cash for a Rice-family gas-development team sitting on Occidental acreage in the Permian. The bear case is that cash is being converted into turbines before a customer commits, and the mid-October notice-to-proceed date on the engine package is the first hard test. The investment debate is whether a binding energy-services agreement appears before equipment milestones speak for the cash pile.