SOLV Energy, a solar and battery storage construction contractor, grabbed a nearly $6 billion valuation during its stock-market debut on Wednesday. The company is the first pure-play solar and storage EPC firm to go public on a U.S. exchange — and part of a new wave of clean tech companies going public after a yearslong drought.
The IPO, experts told Latitude Media, suggests that investors see renewables growing alongside the data center boom.
SOLV Energy has a nearly $8-billion backlog of solar and storage projects, mostly for utilities and independent power producers grappling with demand from gigawatt-scale clusters of data centers, according to the company’s SEC filing. CEO George Hershman told Latitude that the reshoring of U.S. manufacturing also has meant new demand; for example, SOLV Energy is building utility-scale solar for Intel’s new advanced chip factory in Arizona.
The company, which operates solely in the U.S., is “seeing historic growth in the market,” Hershman said. “There’s plenty of opportunity here.”
SOLV Energy is one of several energy firms that’ve already filed for IPO listings this year, including geothermal company Fervo Energy and electrical equipment maker Forgent Power. The uptick marks a shift in the market, because there hasn’t been notable IPOs for a couple years, said Rob Barnett, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence covering global solar, wind, and carbon research.
Energy EPC firms — which provide engineering, procurement, and construction services to the industry — have seen an even longer fallow period. The last to go public was Primoris Services Corporation in 2008.
Barnett noted that more broadly, clean energy stocks have been on a good run for the last 18 months, despite the Trump administration’s criticism of solar and wind energy and rollback of federal support for the industry. That’s because there’s rising electricity demand from data centers and other large loads, and solar and battery storage are some of the cheapest and fastest technologies to add to the grid.
“It’s a little contrarian,” Barnett said. “Despite the critiques from the senior political elite in the country, the industry has a pretty good set of fundamentals and the stocks have generally outperformed the S&P 500, the World Index, almost any index you can pick — with the exception of the AI-geared names.”
Supply risks and political attacks
SOLV Energy shares opened at $30, above the company’s initial target of $25, meaning the offering was oversubscribed from investors. The company, which offers EPC services along with long-term maintenance of renewable projects, raised more than $500 million. Some of that funding will be used to pay off debt, an SEC filing said.
Before the IPO, SOLV Energy in 2025 had acquired the transmission and distribution contracting company Spartan Infrastructure, and more M&A opportunities may be ahead.
The company faces some growth risks, including both the global shortage of transformers that’s expected to last until at least 2030. Unpredictable U.S. policy and its impact on the renewables sector is another potential hurdle.
As of December, there were nearly 500 solar and storage projects that haven’t received all regulatory approvals and deemed “at risk” by the Solar Energy Industries Association due to the administration’s actions. The projects represent 43% of all new planned power capacity in the U.S.
Hershman isn’t too worried, though. He told Latitude that the supply chain for materials used to make transformers has grown in the last few years, including more domestic manufacturing. SOLV Energy has put “strategic procurement practices” in place to ensure the company has equipment well ahead of when a project takes off, he added. SOLV Energy has continued securing federal permits for solar projects, Hershman added, even as other companies have faced a blockade by the Interior Department.
“We’re in an energy deficit,” Hershman said. “We need to build energy to support the digital economy. If we’re going to do that, then lots of forms of energy need to move forward. Solar is the lowest cost, fastest to deploy. So I think that’s why you’re seeing some projects, at least in solar and storage, move forward.
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