After 18 years of carving out a national niche in the energy infrastructure sector, San Diego-based SOLV Energy became a public company on Feb. 11, closing out its initial public offering and trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.

“You’re always a little nervous because you feel like you’re throwing a big party and you don’t know who’s going to show up,” founder and CEO George Hershman said.

It turned out that there was no reason to worry, as investors gobbled up 20.5 million shares of Class A common stock at an IPO price of $25 per share for the company that’s built more than 500 solar and battery energy storage projects across the country — and has constructed, operates and maintains 150 of its own utility-scale solar and battery facilities.

“I think the strength of our investors and the support of our business was strong,” Hershman said during an interview at SOLV Energy’s headquarters in Rancho Bernardo.

The company boasts a market cap of about $5.85 billion and despite stock market jitters caused by the twists and turns with the war in Iran, SOLV Energy stock has more than held its own. It closed the trading day last Friday at $31.66 per share.

“I think investors are looking at the stability of renewables as a real way to hedge against the volatility of fossil fuels” in the wake of the hostilities, Hershman said.

But regardless of what eventually happens near-term in the Middle East, it’s widely accepted that energy demand is poised to take a dramatic leap in the U.S.

Some analysts foresee domestic electricity consumption swelling 25% in the next four years — and continuing to rise well into the next decade — due to a combination of factors, most notably the growth of data centers feeding artificial intelligence.

SOLV Energy executives believe their company is in the right place at the right time.

“We’ve never seen that kind of energy demand in the U.S. so a company like ours is well-positioned to provide that generation and service,” Hershman said. “We’re sitting in a good spot to continue to grow and capture a lot of that market opportunity … I think the investor community understands that energy demand is real.”

Legislation dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that passed on Capitol Hill and was signed into law last summer by President Donald Trump cracked down on the 30% federal tax credit on solar and wind power. But a safe harbor provision for utility-scale projects is in place until July 4,  and those that meet a “begin construction” deadline have as late as 2030 to receive the credit.

“It really didn’t create much of an impact on our business,” Hershman said. “Energy demand is what is driving our market now, not tax incentives.”

Microsoft is in the process of resurrecting one of the nuclear power units at Three Mile Island to provide electricity to fuel its AI data centers. Some tech titans are casting their eyes on natural gas plants for the same reason.

But Hershman says SOLV Energy has an advantage.

“A gas plant is going to take you seven to 10 years to build. A nuclear plant is going to take you a few decades to build, at best,” he said. But a solar and storage plant “can be deployed and be sending megawatt-hours to the grid in 12 to 18 months.”

But what about the fact that renewable energy sources are intermittent — that is, solar does not produce electricity when the sun is not shining and batteries typically run for about four hours? And what about concerns of battery fires?

Hershman said “long-duration battery (systems) are coming” and technological advancements are leading to more fire-resistant battery chemistries.

“We’re going to have to make sure that we do it safely, first and foremost, and technology is going to be a big part of that,” he said. “But the reality is, we’re going to have to meet this load somehow.”

Before its IPO, SOLV Energy was a private company, created as a division of commercial construction company Swinerton in 2008. Since 2022, SOLV has been owned by American Securities, a private equities firm.

SOLV’s national workforce is made up of about 2,600 employees, with more than 150 based in the San Diego area.

The company’s ticker symbol is MWH, which is appropriate for an energy company since that’s an acronym for “megawatt hours.”