M&A moves

Solar company acquires Houston manufacturer to expand production capacity, meet growing demand

Included in the deal, is the newly leased facility that spans 567,140 square feet and can accommodate 2.5 gigawatts of solar module manufacturing capacity. Photo via Pixabay

Solar solution company TOYO Solar announced it has agreed to acquire 100 percent of membership interests in Houston area’s Solar Plus Technology Texas LLC.

Included in the deal, is the newly leased facility that spans 567,140 square feet and can accommodate 2.5 gigawatts of solar module manufacturing capacity. The goal is to expand it to 6.5 gigawatts by 2029. TOYO Solar LLC will make a capital contribution of $19.96 million to TOYO Solar LLC.

"By acquiring Solar Plus, we will accelerate our development and leverage our team's proven manufacturing excellence, as well as the extensively established customer relationships and the brand of our sister company, Vietnam Sunergy, a Tier 1 Bloomberg NEF solar manufacturer," Junsei Ryu, chairman and CEO of TOYO, says in a news release. "We are confident that our expansion in the U.S. will effectively deliver a comprehensive solar technology solution, addressing bottlenecks for developers, meeting local content requirements for U.S. solar projects, and enhancing TOYO's competitive advantage."

The factory construction of Phase 1 has been completed, and equipment will begin to arrive by early 2025.The facility's first 1 gigawatts production is expected to commence by mid-2025 with production capacity increasing to 2.5 gigawatts by the end of 2025 according to the company.

As the demand for American-made solar panels continues amid grid reliability issues in Texas, TOYO hopes it can help with its sustainable energy solutions after having success in Vietnam and Ethiopia.

"Our strategy is to supply end customers with solar solutions that are technologically advanced, highly reliable, and cost competitive,” Ryu says in the release. “We are committed to building a robust global solar supply chain structure that efficiently and competitively serves the U.S. market and other regions, adapting to a dynamic policy environment.”

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A View From HETI

Reliant is offering new incentives to boost NRG's virtual power plant network in Texas. Photo via goodleap.com.

Houston’s Reliant and San Francisco tech company GoodLeap are teaming up to bolster residential battery participation and accelerate the growth of NRG’s virtual power plant (VPP) network in Texas.

Through the new partnership, eligible Reliant customers can either lease a battery or enter into a power purchase agreement with GoodLeap through its GoodGrid program, which incentivises users by offering monthly performance-based rewards for contributing stored power to the grid. Through the Reliant GoodLeap VPP Battery Program, customers will start earning $40 per month in rewards from GoodLeap.

“These incentives highlight our commitment to making homeowner battery adoption more accessible, effectively offsetting the cost of the battery and making the upgrade a no-cost addition to their homes,” Dan Lotano, COO at GoodLeap, said in a news release.“We’re proud to work with NRG to unlock the next frontier in distributed energy in Texas. This marks an important step in GoodLeap reaching our nationwide goal of 1.5 GW of managed distributed energy over the next five years.”

Other features of the program include power outage plans, with battery reserves set aside for outage events. The plan also intelligently manages the battery without homeowner interaction.

The partnership comes as Reliant’s parent company, NRG, continues to scale its VPP program. Last year, NRG partnered with California-based Renew Home to distribute hundreds of thousands of VPP-enabled smart thermostats by 2035 in an effort to help households manage and lower their energy costs.

“We started building our VPP with smart thermostats across Texas, and now this partnership with GoodLeap brings home battery storage into our platform,” Mark Parsons, senior vice president and head of Texas energy at NRG, said in a the release. “Each time we add new devices, we’re enabling Texans to unlock new value from their homes, earn rewards and help build a more resilient grid for everyone. This is about giving customers the opportunity to actively participate in the energy transition and receive tangible benefits for themselves and their communities.

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