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European renewables co. expands into US with Houston-area solar panel manufacturing facility

A Turkish solar panel manufacturing company has opened its first US location just outside of Houston. Photo courtesy of Elin Energy

A European company opened a new 225,000-square-foot solar panel assembly facility in Waller County, and it has the capacity to manufacture 2,000 megawatts annually.

Turkish company Elin Energy opened it new space in Twinwood Business Park with the help from Houston real estate development company The Welcome Group and Houston construction company KDW. It's Elin Energy's first location in the United States.

The Waller facility aims to “catapult the company’s growth in the Western hemisphere and reinforce its commitment to sustainable energy production and innovation,” according to a news release. Elin’s panel designs boost the productivity of solar panels by requiring less space than traditional systems.

Photo courtesy of Elin Energy

“The facility [Elin has leased] was designed with generous bay spacing, clear height and upgraded power to accommodate and upgraded power to accommodate a variety of manufacturing needs,” Welcome Wilson Jr., president and CEO of the Welcome Group, says in the release. “Elin Energy’s state-of-the-art solar manufacturing equipment easily fit into the building footprint. The first equipment lines are installed, and the future equipment lines have been ordered.”

One of Europe's top producers of photovoltaic panels, Elin Energy's new facility features two solar panel manufacturing lines. The Waller County Economic Development Partnership and efforts from the state helped bring Elin to the area. Elin aims to bring around 100 jobs by the end of their first year of operations with an estimated 450 by the end of year seven.

KDW completed the build in under 6 months.

“The equipment delivery demanded an aggressive schedule which made it essential that all parties involved have a heightened level of coordination and cooperation,” KDW Construction Manager Bryan Harrison says in the release.

Photo courtesy of Elin Energy

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A View From HETI

Michael Wortley, Joulent's new CFO, and Corey Grindal, the company's new COO. Photos courtesy Joulent

Houston-based energy infrastructure startup Joulent has brought aboard a new chief financial officer and new chief operating officer—both former executives at Houston-based Cheniere Energy.

The C-suite moves come three months after Joulent raised $1.75 billion from National Grid Ventures.

Michael Wortley joins Joulent as co-president and CFO. Wortley most recently was executive vice president and CFO at Cheniere, an LNG producer and exporter.

In conjunction with Wortley’s hiring, Brian Boland, who was Joulent’s interim CFO, has been named executive vice president, chief investment officer, and head of strategy.

Corey Grindal comes to Joulent as co-president and COO. Grindal most recently was executive vice president and COO at Cheniere.

“As Joulent evolves to meet the growing demand for power infrastructure, our expanded leadership team will help ensure we continue delivering the execution certainty our customers, partners, and investors expect,” Chris James, Joulent’s founder and CEO, said in a press release.

“Corey and Michael are accomplished operators with exceptional records of building and leading world-class energy infrastructure businesses, where they have embedded a culture defined by operational excellence and disciplined execution,” James added.

Joulet builds dedicated power-generating facilities that feed directly into data centers and other power-dependent facilities. This eliminates the need for companies to draw power from grids.

“With an initial multi-gigawatt development portfolio and strategic partnerships across the energy, infrastructure, and data center ecosystem, Joulent is helping remove power constraints to enable the next chapter of American innovation and U.S. reindustrialization,” the company says.

The $1.75 billion minority investment from National Grid Ventures complements Joulent’s existing partnerships.

Joulent, founded in 2023, emerged from stealth mode this summer. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based GE Vernova, a provider of energy equipment and services, and investment firm Engine No. 1 formed Joulent.

Joulent’s first project, the Project Kilby natural gas facility in West Texas, will be co-located with a Microsoft data center. It’ll deliver about 2.67 gigawatts of power under a 20-year deal between Microsoft and Energy Forge One, a subsidiary of Houston-based Chevron. Engine No. 1 and Chevron teamed up to build the plant.

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