Earnings call transcript: Solaris Energy Q4 2024 sees revenue surge

Published 21/02/2025, 16:50
 Earnings call transcript: Solaris Energy Q4 2024 sees revenue surge

Solaris Energy Infrastructure, a power solutions provider with a market capitalization of $829.7 million, reported robust financial results for Q4 2024, with a significant increase in revenue and adjusted EBITDA. The company saw a 28% rise in total revenue to $96 million and a 68% increase in adjusted EBITDA to $37 million. Trading at an attractive P/E ratio of 6.3, the company continues to strengthen its position in the power solutions market, driven by increased demand for electrification and domestic manufacturing reshoring.

According to InvestingPro analysis, Solaris is currently undervalued, making it an interesting prospect for value investors. Get access to detailed valuation metrics and 6 additional ProTips by subscribing to InvestingPro.

Key Takeaways

  • Revenue increased by 28% from the prior quarter, reaching $96 million.
  • Adjusted EBITDA surged by 68%, totaling $37 million.
  • Power Solutions contributed over 50% of the adjusted EBITDA.
  • The company approved its 26th consecutive dividend of $0.12 per share.
  • Solaris aims to expand its power generation fleet to 1,400 MW by early 2027.

Company Performance

Solaris Energy Infrastructure demonstrated strong performance in Q4 2024, reflecting a significant uptick in demand across its key business segments. The company’s focus on modular and efficient power solutions has positioned it well in a market increasingly driven by electrification and reshoring trends. Compared to previous quarters, Solaris has shown consistent growth, bolstered by its strategic expansion in power generation capacity and logistics.

Financial Highlights

  • Revenue: $96 million, a 28% increase from the previous quarter.
  • Adjusted EBITDA: $37 million, a 68% increase from the previous quarter.
  • Dividend: $0.12 per share, marking the 26th consecutive payout.

Outlook & Guidance

Solaris is targeting a power generation fleet expansion to 1,400 MW by early 2027, with 450 MW of uncontracted capacity available for future projects. The company is exploring growth opportunities in data centers, industrial complexes, and manufacturing. With an "GREAT" Financial Health Score from InvestingPro, the company appears well-positioned to execute its growth strategy. Access the comprehensive Pro Research Report, available for 1,400+ US stocks, to gain deeper insights into Solaris’s growth potential and financial stability. Looking ahead, Solaris aims to leverage its competitive edge in emissions-efficient technology and flexible power solutions to capture a larger market share.

Executive Commentary

CEO Bill Zartler emphasized the company’s role as an electricity provider, stating, "Power as a service means we are filling the role of the electricity provider." CFO Kyle Ramachandran highlighted the company’s resilience against inflationary pressures, noting, "We are not saddled with the inflationary pressure of bringing the grid into the current sort of 21st century." These comments underscore Solaris’s strategic approach to market expansion and operational efficiency.

Risks and Challenges

  • Extended grid interconnection wait times could delay project deployments.
  • Market competition may intensify, affecting pricing strategies.
  • Economic uncertainties could impact customer investment in new projects.
  • Regulatory changes in emissions standards might require additional investments.
  • Supply chain disruptions could affect equipment availability and costs.

Solaris Energy Infrastructure’s Q4 2024 results reflect a dynamic and growing company capitalizing on favorable market trends. The company’s strategic initiatives and robust financial performance position it well for continued growth, despite the challenges posed by market and regulatory dynamics.

Full transcript - Schroder Oriental Income Fund (SOI) Q4 2024:

Conference Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Solaris Energy Infrastructure Fourth Quarter and Full Year twenty twenty four Earnings Teleconference and Webcast. All participants will be in listen only mode. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Yvonne Fletcher, Senior Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Yvonne Fletcher, Senior Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to the Solaris fourth quarter twenty twenty four earnings conference call. Joining us today are our Chairman and CEO, Bill Zartler and our President and CFO, Kyle Ramachandran. Before we begin, I’d like to remind you of our standard cautionary remarks regarding the forward looking nature of some of the statements that we will make today. Such forward looking statements may include comments regarding future financial results and reflect a number of known and unknown risks.

Please refer to our press release issued yesterday along with other recent public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that outline those risks. I would also like to point out that our earnings release and today’s conference call will contain discussion of non GAAP financial measures, which we believe can be useful in evaluating our performance. The presentation of this additional information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures are available in our earnings release, which is posted in a news section on our website. I’ll now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Bill Zartler.

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: Thank you, Yvonne, and thank you everyone for joining us this morning. 2024 was a tremendous year of transformation for Solaris. We generated strong free cash flow in our legacy Solaris Logistics Solution business and found a great opportunity to reinvest that cash through the acquisition and subsequent growth of a mobile power generation business that is now Solaris Power Solutions. I’ll start this morning by giving you an update on our power solution strategy including the latest power generation capacity order and long term customer contract that we announced last night in our earnings release. We’re only six months into our journey of building a premier behind the meter power as a service company and our team has done an incredible job executing on this strategy.

Our Power Solutions fleet began with just over 150 megawatts generation assets. Last quarter after executing on a series of orders in several multi year customer contracts, we’re on a path to grow to around 700 megawatts by early twenty twenty six. Last night, we announced the next leg of growth for the power fleet. We recently placed a new order for an additional 700 megawatts that doubles our fleet size to approximately 1,400 megawatts or 1.4 gigawatts by early twenty twenty seven. We believe this additional capacity will allow us both to service growth with our current customer base and add new customers.

Speaking of supporting customers, last night we also announced a strategic long term partnership with one of our current customers that includes a contract for a minimum of approximately 500 megawatts with initial term of six years for a new data center. We are also finalizing the formation of a joint venture with this customer to join on the power plant equipment supporting the new data center. Kyle will provide more detail on the structure of this partnership later. We believe this latest fixture and joint ownership agreement is indicative of the evolving nature and importance of the market for behind the meter power as well as a strong testament to Solaris’ high quality value proposition. We’re excited about the continued momentum we observe for Solaris Power Solutions.

Today’s power applications are getting larger and more numerous coupled with customers recognizing the longer term nature of their requirements that has driven this nearly tenfold increase of our business to 1.4 kilowatts. A single data center today can require well over a gigawatt of power and some oilfield and other micro grids are approaching 100 megawatts in power demand. Our integrated behind the meter power solution is well suited to satisfy those needs. The growing need for power is being driven by the electrification of everything, the domestic reshoring of manufacturing and the growing quantity and scale of data centers. Demand for power has outpaced investment in infrastructure creating a significant opportunity for our Power Solutions segment.

This has resulted in extended grid interconnection wait times in turn driving a greater need for bridge and permanent behind the meter long term power solutions which we are well positioned to supply. For many customers that bridge timeframe is extending thus behind the meter power is evolving toward more permanent power which will supplement the grid by helping manage complex loads providing redundancy and potentially even improving grid resilience. The notion of bring your own power is becoming a requirement for many industrial applications. We define this total offering as power as a service which for Solaris reflects our business model whereby we provide both behind the meter power generation and distribution services into our customers specific applications which are becoming increasingly complex and require 20 fourseven operation and oversight. Power as a service also means we are filling the role of the electricity provider for our customers which requires combining reliability and agility with compelling economics and emissions profiles.

Delivering reliable Power as a Service starts with a culture of collaboration and creative problem solving led by the right team and supported with the right equipment. This proven framework has been the cornerstone of our logistics business and now we’re applying the same principles to build our Power business. Our power solutions business is guided by its founders who are not only steering operations but also mentoring the next level of talent. As recognized industry leaders both bring extensive expertise in designing, installing and managing electrical infrastructure. We also recently added Max Uzaguerre to our Board.

Max is a former Chairman of the Texas Public Utilities Commission and a former ERCOT Board member. Max spent much of his career developing power and other power natural gas related infrastructure projects both in The U. S. And international and he brings to us an invaluable perspective on the power markets for Solaris. As we continue to integrate, our teams are creating operational synergies.

We’ve repositioned several groups such as engineering, internal manufacturing and information technology to service both power and logistics. We’re also cross pollinating the power solutions field team with talent from our logistics solutions business. Being reliable, agile and cost competitive also means we need to have the right equipment to optimize each customer’s application. Today our fleet is standardized around medium sized gas fired turbines that range in size from five megawatts to 38 megawatts. These block sizes provide flexibility to design tailored power solutions for the customers need and operating parameters.

This also allows us to effectively scale with our customers’ power needs in all phases as we retain the ability to move power around the site as customer needs dictate. Our turbines offer substantial power density, so they’re well suited for larger projects demand. A portion of our recent equipment orders are purpose built modular systems designed to stay on location for longer periods of time, offer enhanced fuel efficiency and additional state of the art emissions control systems. I mentioned earlier that we are observing an evolving need to have behind the meter power on location for extended periods of time. A few of those cases, but to the extent required, we are helping our customers develop emissions permits to allow behind the meter gas fired turbines to operate on a multiyear basis.

The majority of the turbines in our fleet are built on a technology that produces the lowest docks emissions available in the turbine market. This advantage starting point helps us make the addition of emission controls economic for our customer and enables us to help drive a best in class emissions profile. We continue to build our asset and contract portfolio with a focus on opportunities where we can provide power on a multiyear contract. As we build our fleet, we will be able to service a wider range of applications. This could include providing power for other data centers, other commercial and industrial facilities, oil and gas production in midstream and possibly also having a smaller portion available for short and medium term power needs such as emergency power or shorter term grid delays that provide attractive returns.

We plan to remain disciplined in our deployments and expect to earn attractive returns on our capital over time. Turning to Solaris Logistics, we’re seeing a significant increase in our activity in Q1. We expect at least 15% sequential increase in fully utilized systems despite a relatively flat outlook for overall oil and gas completions. The increase in Solaris logistics activity is being driven by the continued adoption of our new technology and market share gains. We believe this reflects the excellent job our logistics team has done in winning work with new and existing customers and the unwavering service they provide for our customers.

Over the past few years, we’ve developed additional equipment to complement our sand silo systems on each well site that increased trucking efficiency. We call this add on kit the top fill system. In the fourth quarter approximately 70% of our locations have both our legacy sand system and a top fill system. Going into the first quarter we expect closer to 75% of our sites to have multiple Soliris systems and we are effectively sold out of our top fill solution. The financial impacts to Solaris of having two systems on location is a near doubling of the earnings potential per location which we expect to materialize over the coming couple of quarters.

Last night, we also announced that our Board has approved Solaris’ twenty six consecutive dividend of $0.12 per share for both A and B class shareholders. Fundamentally, both of our businesses are cash generative and we believe that continues to support our long history of returning cash to shareholders and puts us in a unique position to both grow shareholder returns and invest in growth. We are excited about the results for both business segments. The continued momentum we are seeing in SOLIRIS, Power Solutions segment and the exceptional team and innovative culture that we continue to build. We are focused on maximizing shareholder value through growing the company and maintaining our dividend without sacrificing the strong financial profile of our business.

With that, I will turn it over to Kyle.

Kyle Ramachandran, President and CFO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everyone. I’ll begin this morning by providing additional details on our updated order book, the associated growth capital spending and our latest results on finance. We also encourage you to refer to our earnings supplement slide deck, which was published last night on the Investor Relations section of our website under Events and Presentations. Our recent incremental 700 megawatt order effectively doubles our operated fleet to 1,400 megawatts. Pro form a for all deliveries, approximately 90% of the resulting fleet will consist of 16.5 megawatts and 38 megawatt units, which we think results in a fleet that offers an attractive level of power density, while still allowing us to be responsive to our customers’ needs for scaling and flexibility.

We expect to take deliveries under this latest order mostly over the course of 2026 with full effective deployment of our fleet in the first half of twenty twenty seven. As Bill mentioned, we are excited about the long term partnership we are forming with an existing hyperscaler customer. We’ve reached an agreement with this customer to provide a minimum of 500 megawatts for an initial tenure of six years for a new data center. And we are in the process of finalizing details of a joint venture arrangement with our customer to support this investment. This joint venture structure appeals to us for many reasons.

It aligns our interest with those of our customer. It also demonstrates the long term nature of the customer’s commitment to behind the meter power given their desire to retain partial ownership in these assets. And lastly, it demonstrates the confidence they have in Solaris as a partner that has a proven ability to execute over the long term. Under the proposed structure, we would own 50.1% of the assets and would operate and manage the equipment on behalf of the JV. We expect that the Partnership will pursue debt financing directly at the JV level to fund a significant portion of the purchase of the assets.

For reporting purposes, we expect to consolidate the financial results of the full partnership with our customers equity portion of earnings reported as non controlling interest. The impact of this partnership on our fleet will result in a net owned fleet of approximately 1,100 megawatts out of the total owned and operated fleet of 1,400 megawatts. Of this capacity, roughly four fifty megawatts are available for future contracting with customers for deliveries beginning in the second half of twenty twenty six. The pace and trajectory of our ongoing commercial discussion gives us confidence that we will contract the remaining capacity. The addition of the contract announced last night also helps to extend our average contract tenure.

In a very short period of time, we have extended term from approximately six months to four to five years on a blended basis, including this most recent contract at six years. Bill mentioned a few of the primary drivers behind accelerating contract tenure, including the extension of wait times for grid power, as well as an evolution of strategy to include behind the meter power at a more permanent basis in certain applications as primary power. And we offer this solution at an all in cost that is competitive with today’s grid, which in our view has higher inflationary risk as compared to the structural behind the meter generation under a long term contract. I’ll now describe our earnings potential once the fleet is fully deployed. At full deployment, we expect the total company to generate $475,000,000 to $500,000,000 of adjusted EBITDA on a consolidated basis.

Accounting for the contemplated joint venture structure, we expect adjusted EBITDA net to Solaris of approximately $400,000,000 to $425,000,000 These estimates consider the current contract book and assume a three to four year payback on the uncontracted equipment we have on order today. As we continue to work with our existing and potential customers to address our evolving power needs, we see the potential for our fleet to continue to grow in the future. We also see potential for growth beyond our generation capacity to include adjacencies such as distribution and balance of plant equipment. Our recent investment in emissions control equipment is an example where we have opportunities to continue growing our earnings per customer location. On a consolidated basis, the incremental orders should add approximately $600,000,000 to our prior capital estimates, including allowance for balance of plant and emissions controlled technology.

We expect the JV to reduce Solaris’ capital requirements by approximately $215,000,000 We’re currently in discussions with our term loan lenders who are supportive of providing flexibility under the existing agreement to pursue our growth plans and have expressed support for potential additional future financing. Turning to a recap of our fourth quarter twenty twenty four performance and our guidance expectations for the next two quarters. During the fourth quarter, Solaris generated total revenue of $96,000,000 which reflected a 28% increase from the prior quarter due to a full quarter contribution from Solaris Power Solutions as well as continued activity growth in Power. Adjusted EBITDA of $37,000,000 represented a 68% increase from the prior quarter. Solaris Power Solutions contributed more than 50% of our adjusted EBITDA mix is on track to contribute nearly 80% of our earnings after our on order fleet is deployed.

During the fourth quarter, we earned revenue on an average of approximately two sixty megawatts in Solaris Power Solutions. For the first quarter of twenty twenty five, we are increasing our activity guidance as measured by average megawatts earning revenue by 20% to three sixty megawatts. This increase is being driven by increased power demand from our customers and we are meeting this demand by a combination of accelerated deliveries of our equipment orders and selective sourcing of third party turbines. For the second quarter, we expect average megawatts on revenue to increase by 17% to approximately four twenty megawatts. In our Solaris Logistics Solutions segment, we expect fully utilized systems to grow over 15% to approximately 90 to 95 systems and remain there for the first half of the year.

We expect profit per system to return to third quarter twenty twenty four levels as we demonstrate strong incremental profitability on the systems going back to work. For a corporate or unallocated expense impact to adjusted EBITDA, we expect approximately $9,000,000 of expense in the first quarter due to the expected cash settlement of stock based performance units granted in 2023 and 2024. We expect a more normal run rate expense of approximately $7,000,000 in Q2. These items net to adjusted EBITDA between $44,000,000 and $48,000,000 in Q1 and adjusted EBITDA between $50,000,000 and $55,000,000 for Q2. For more detail on the guidance and other corporate modeling items such as interest expense, depreciation and amortization, tax rate and share count to use for modeling purposes, please refer to our earnings supplement slide deck.

As Bill mentioned, our Board recently approved the 26 consecutive dividend of $0.12 per share, which will be paid on March 21 to holders of record as of 03/11/2025. Considering our latest share count, this should equate to a little more than $8,000,000 Pro form a for the first quarter dividend payment, we will have returned $198,000,000 to shareholders since we began our shareholder returns program in 2018. We are excited about the growing opportunities for Solaris in both of its business lines. We will remain focused on generating strong returns on capital invested as we continue to build our Power Solutions business while maintaining the strong cash generation from our logistics business. Our shareholder return program via dividends and attractive financial profile.

With that, we’d be happy to take your questions.

Conference Operator: We will now begin the question and answer session. And our first question will come from Stephen Gengaro with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: Thanks. Good

Stephen Gengaro, Analyst, Stifel: morning, everybody. I think my first question is just around sort of the opportunity. I mean, obviously, it’s been a crazy six months to watch. But when we think about sort of the new relationship that you have created and kind of the opportunities out there and maybe kind of keeping the supply chain in mind, But what could this look like two or three years out? Like kind of what’s the vision from here internally?

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: Well, I mean, you hit the nail on the head when you said it’s been a wild ride. We continue to ensure that we can execute kind of flawlessly as we grow this fast. So there’s obviously that’s a key part of this and we’re watching the market. Obviously there’s a lot of talk, lot of commercial activity going on around it and we’re balancing how fast we believe we can execute with combination of having growing our team to the right level and having the right set of equipment supplies both generation and distribution balance plant type equipment. And so we’re balancing those off as we look at new commercial opportunities.

But there still is plenty of growth opportunities in the market as we look forward.

Stephen Gengaro, Analyst, Stifel: Okay. Thanks. And then my follow-up question was, I think I have a sense for this from what you announced and the level of detail you guys provided is very helpful. The when we think about the profitability per megawatt and then we also think about on the other side, the price that you’re paying per megawatt, has there been any it doesn’t seem like it, but has there been any material change or trend there kind of given the demand outlook on one hand and given the supply chain constraints on the other?

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: I think the step change was about a year ago in some of the supply areas. I think we’ve seen it generally creep up and we’re obviously watching what happens with tariffs and how that impacts some of the supply chain. But it’s not been material yet and it’s slowly creeping up, yes. And I think we that will get and the market will absorb those additional costs on comp. Yes.

Kyle Ramachandran, President and CFO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: I think what I would add is the initial fleet in this business was all mobile in nature, was on axles and wheels. And that carries a slightly larger dollar per megawatt cost. And as we look at the equipment that we’ve just recently ordered, it is modular in nature and it’s assembled on-site. It’s not intended or its best case use isn’t to be moved as frequently as an asset sitting on wheels would be. And so I think the read through is we can be a little bit more competitive from $1 per megawatt capital cost as we transition into equipment that’s meant to stay on a location for a much longer period of time.

So when we look at the six year contract, the equipment that we’re pairing that with is larger in nature in terms of megawatts per unit. And with that, we’re also driving some efficiencies on the heat rate nature of that equipment and the all in total cost of ownership for our customer by effectively being more efficient. So I think there’s some puts and takes. Certainly, we’re keeping a close eye on supply chain inputs such as tariffs, as Bill alluded to. But we’re also doing some things from a purchase decision which is being fed somewhat by the market that’s driving longer duration behind the meter solutions that can take a slightly different looking piece of capital.

Stephen Gengaro, Analyst, Stifel: Got it. No, great. That’s good color. Thank you.

Conference Operator: And our next question will come from Derek Foddeiser with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Derek Foddeiser, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Hey, good morning everyone and congrats on all the announcements. I just wanted to talk about obviously the six year contracts, the testament to your solution offering. You talked about power as a service providing that reliable power. Can you maybe put into context and maybe educate us in the market on the complexity required to power these generative AI data centers, plus the cost of the power as a service relative to the overall cost of the data center? I’m just trying to help alleviate concerns of a future power pricing war as more megawatts enter the market with new players.

Just maybe some help in context around that.

Kyle Ramachandran, President and CFO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: I think first and foremost, we alluded to it in our call around the call the prepared remarks. Our solution today is very competitive with the real competition, which is the grid. We are not saddled our solution and our customers are not saddled with the inflationary pressure of bringing the grid into the current sort of twenty first century. We are looking at a structure where our customers can have clear visibility into the cost of the equipment for a long duration and the only sort of input they’ve really got to manage is on the fuel side, so natural gas prices. So I think our customers see our solution as having more sustainability, more consistent view of what the total cost of ownership relative to a grid that we expect to see significant inflationary pressure.

So I think that’s sort of how we contextualized.

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: And adding to that would be the effective backup nature of having this equipment right next to your building versus having to rely on the utilities. So I think there’s an embedded if you’re going to build one of these and you’re going to spend a lot of capital and money designing a backup system. Here you have quite a bit of that embedded in the direct behind the meter power.

Kyle Ramachandran, President and CFO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: And I think the third piece of that would be just the nature of this. We today our fleet is obviously pretty heavily weighted towards the data center world. But when we look at the themes of reshoring manufacturing and just industrial growth in general here in The U. S, there are many end markets that are likely to be short power. And so this is a very large secular theme that’s not predicated on just simply one macro output.

Derek Foddeiser, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Right. That makes sense. I guess that leads into my next question kind of around customer concentration risk with this one key customer with the data center. Obviously, the multi year contract and the JV derisks that. But are you in conversations with other hyperscalers?

I mean, should we expect to see a new data center contract with a different customer from you guys with this available megawatt capacity that you have starting in the back half of next year?

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: We have numerous ongoing conversations both with large industrial complexes that are short of power as well as data centers. And so which one of those ends up with a piece of the power, the next power and there’s potential expansions beyond that. But as we look at the world, it is data center driven on an increment, but I will tell you that we’re having lots of conversations with heavy industrial type activities that need to power just as bad.

Derek Foddeiser, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Got it. Very helpful. All right. I’ll turn it back. Thank you.

Conference Operator: And the next question will come from Derrick Whitfield with Texas Capital. Please go ahead.

Dereck Whitfield, Analyst, Texas Capital: Good morning, Alan. Congrats on the quarter and your JV announcement.

Kyle Ramachandran, President and CFO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: Thanks, Derek.

Dereck Whitfield, Analyst, Texas Capital: I have two questions for you guys and they’re both related to your Power Solutions business. First, regarding the four fifty megawatts of uncontracted capacity, how aggressively will you look to market that given the tightness in the market dynamics for behind the meter solutions?

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: I mean, we’re in lots of several active discussions and I don’t think there’s a need to get overly impatient with it as we see it and as we’re putting money down toward the acquisition that we’re not out a lot of cash at this point relative to the timing of doing that. I think we’ll see that evolve. And I think the core here is that it will more than likely be in a similar kind of tenor, if not longer type contract. And I think that’s where the market is evolving with this. And a piece of that order is mobile and a piece of that order is modular.

Kyle Ramachandran, President and CFO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: And yes, the timing of it is twelve plus months out from a delivery standpoint. So a lot of time under the curve available.

Dereck Whitfield, Analyst, Texas Capital: And then on the second question, and thinking about some of the announcements from majors including Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM), how important are lower emission solutions to your data center customers?

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: I think it’s a mixed bag. I think if you look at what we’re doing on the semi permanent, if you will, power plants, we’re adding and even stuff with a little shorter term. We have acquired and have a nice backlog of SCRs to go with this to drop the emissions profile to a very acceptable sub-two PPM level. And we start off even with the mobile versions of this Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) solar equipment at a sub-nine PPM with their Soladox technology at a pretty low spot even in the shorter term application. So I think we feel comfortable with the emissions profile of this equipment fairly state of the art relative to that relative to the market.

Conference Operator: Great. Thanks for your time. The next question will come from Jeff LeBlanc with TPH. Please go ahead.

Jeff LeBlanc, Analyst, TPH: Good morning, Bill and team. Thank you for taking my question. I just wanted to ask around the dynamics of the order itself and how your relationship with the OEM led to this. The quoted capacity of 38 megawatts seems to imply that it’s Solar’s new offering. So also curious to see how much does this order represent of their largest capacity moving forward?

Thank you.

Kyle Ramachandran, President and CFO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: Yes. We’ve spent a lot of time with Solar in reviewing this product line. This is a new product for Solar. They have their first deployment actually going to another data center in Texas with subsequent deployments with a couple of other customers. So we’re not the first guinea pig out of the order here, but we are, I would suspect, the largest buyer of those units at this point in time.

So that’s a product that we’ve got great visibility and it’s a as I alluded to, it’s got a superior heat rate to some of the other products on the market. It’s incredibly robust, very dense in terms of footprint per megawatt. And so we’re really excited about having that on this new data center. Our customer is really excited about it as well. And so we look forward to continuing to develop that relationship with solar.

We spent a lot of time with them and the puts and takes of our sort of feedback around all of their equipment given the significantly size relationship that we have here in this company, but there’s also significant duration in the relationship history of Solaris being in the power space with the team that we brought in the NER acquisition.

Conference Operator: The next question will come from Thomas Merrick with Janney Montgomery Scott. Please go ahead.

Thomas Merrick, Analyst, Janney Montgomery Scott: Good morning, gentlemen. Thanks for the time. A couple of questions for me. I’ll start with what you’re seeing on voltage variability, specifically on the chips. I think everyone knows how highly variable that voltage can be.

So I’m curious what you’re doing to help customers deal with that from the power delivery standpoint and just how that kind of fits into your company ethos of being a service provider and helping drive efficient operations? And then a few follow ups, Abdi.

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: I think our job as a supplier is to get our customers with the best service they’re looking for and we work very closely with them dealing with things like new deployments of different types of chips in the technology and I think that evolves in this period of working together with your customer resolving all those challenges and however they come up with whether it’s the combination of batteries or UPSs or how you run the equipment or how you back it up. But there isn’t one particular solution to any of it. And I think that part of that business, our customers business is in our business, but we’re evolving how we make sure that it runs well and runs as reliably as possible. And that’s ongoing effort and it’s live.

Kyle Ramachandran, President and CFO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: And I think it speaks to the nature of the distinction that we continue to try and emphasize, which is this is power as a service, emphasis on the word service. Power is available in the sense of folks with capital can go out and secure capacity, but delivering the solution with the service does take a significantly different business model with different competencies and different cultures. And we’ve got a great foundation in the Solaris Logistics business as far as the culture of reliability and performing for customers with equipment and service. And so this is just a natural extension for us with different challenges and we’ve got a great problem solving culture across the board.

Thomas Merrick, Analyst, Janney Montgomery Scott: And then ERCOT has about 20 gigawatts of large load trying to interconnect by the summer of ’twenty seven according to the latest CDR. And I’m curious how you look at that bucket of load with respect to converting to behind the meter power. And just is that a bucket of opportunities that you’re chasing? I mean, kind of obviously it is, but just how you think about the possibility of some of those switching to your solution, for instance?

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: Well, I think some of them clearly will. I think some of the announcements have already pointed that direction out there. I mean, we’re not heavily weighted to ERCOT right now. And so we we’ll address those and there’s clearly pipeline opportunities that are in ERCOT. So I think each location is a little bit different.

Each system operator has a little different set of characteristics and each customer has a little different set of characteristics. And so as we match up what we do as a powers of service and match that with our customers needs, I think we want to make sure there’s a good fit there. It is a I think it’s a there’s a lot of noise and a lot of talk and there’s sometimes maybe the same particular load maybe talked about four or five times and it’s only one particular person that ends up doing it. And so I think we’re very careful and selective of how we lead our way through a market that does have a lot of talk and hype around it and make sure that we’re at the right level at the right place with the right service.

Thomas Merrick, Analyst, Janney Montgomery Scott: And then last one for me and then I’ll turn it back. Just on emissions, you talked about it a couple of times so far on the call. Just how are you helping customers with EPA Clean Air Act permits, specifically whether it’s through your technology that you have with solar, given the NOx emissions rates there or logistically just kind of navigating the requirements, are you helping out in any way there? And that’s it.

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: Yes. As every customer is different, we will roll up our sleeves and generally bring in a specialist environmental consultant to help you with those applications kind of industry wide. And so we’ll work with the customer providing the engineering and the design work of what we’re delivering and help that feed into the permit that they’re generally responsible for. But we’re there as a support role in ensuring that everything is accurate and tied together for the whole units.

Conference Operator: And our next question will come from Shawn Mitchell with Daniel Energy Partners. Please go ahead.

Dereck Whitfield, Analyst, Texas Capital: Thank you and congrats on the deal. I think you guys, Bill, are just working with turbines today. Will you guys ever consider moving into some of the larger gas reships to support your behind the meter solution or are you going to stick with just turbines?

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: Yes. And remember, we operate a fleet of about 30 megawatts of small generation today in resips. And from a starting motor perspective, I think we probably have another 10 megawatts to 10 megawatts of starting motors in the 500 megawatts to seven fifty megawatt size. And I think we’ll continue to see that. We’re studying hard how you pair these up in various load profiles in various environments, altitude matters, temperature matters and each have a good fit for the marketplace.

And right now our focus has been on the more dense power solutions with lot of it, but I think there will be opportunities where you may look at how we maybe combine turbines with large resets or maybe there’s jobs that we want to look at that may be more suited for a bank of gas fired resets.

Dereck Whitfield, Analyst, Texas Capital: Got it. And then maybe one more for me. Just as you we’ve heard a lot about how fast you’ve grown here. Is it going to take some time to absorb the kind of current order? Are you going to be out kind of or digest the current order?

Are you going to be actively pursuing similar deals for 2027 and beyond? Or kind of how should we think about that?

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: I mean, we are the good news is this is spread out in the horizon that if we look at this, we are very confident that we can have all the rest of the balance of plant tied up and we can ensure that we’ve got the right engineering and operations staff to actually run this equipment in the configuration that we’re looking for. So one of the benefits of having larger installations is, of course, the megawatt per operator goes down, if you will, because you’re having a set of operators at one particular site versus them running around to 20 different sites. So there is a lot of value in that for us going forward, but there is opportunities to do things beyond this. And I think we as we find and manage each constraint, we’re going to find opportunities to continue to grow and maybe beyond what we have today with similar kind of like I said, tenor and economics.

Dereck Whitfield, Analyst, Texas Capital: Got it. Thanks for taking my questions. Congrats again.

Conference Operator: The next question will come from David Smith with Pickering Energy Partners. Please go ahead.

Shawn Mitchell, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Hey, good morning and thank you for taking my question. So I’ll reiterate the congratulations on the new orders and the stunning success of your move into power. Lots of good questions asked already. I just had a quick one to help calibrate our model. Apologies if you gave these details and I missed it, but wanted to make sure I understood the improvement of guidance for Q1 deployments and SPS.

So last quarter, I think the expectation was for an average of 300 megawatts deployed in Q1. Now it’s three sixty. Could you indicate how much of that increase relates to accelerated deliveries versus leasing third party equipment?

Kyle Ramachandran, President and CFO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: It’s a mix of both. So we were able to pick up some earlier deliveries on some of the S and T 130s at the end of twenty twenty four. And so we’ve been able to get those out to the customer, which is just driven an increase in Q1 activity. And correct, we have picked up some third party equipment from folks that have available generation, but not necessarily the contracts or the business model in place to support the operations that we’re providing on again the power as a service model. So we have opportunities we’ve been able to pull forward ultimate demand, that’s long term demand for us by bringing in some third party units, which will ultimately be replaced with our own units, which obviously will have incremental economics for us.

Conference Operator: Our next question will come from Don Crist with Johnson Rice.

Dereck Whitfield, Analyst, Texas Capital: Good morning, guys. One question from me, almost everything has been asked already. But we hear from a lot of different companies that are providing turbines to the market that if you place an order today, it’d be about thirty six months for delivery. Was there something that Joe had a relationship or something of that nature that allowed you to get the new order kind of quicker than that? And if you placed another order today, would it be closer to that thirty six month level?

Kyle Ramachandran, President and CFO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: I think the word that we’ve used is bold. We have moved forward efficiently, quickly. We’ve got a culture of decision making that allows us to be in a position to make decisions efficiently. And so all the orders that we’ve placed, they have not been protracted opportunities. They’re available and we’ve got to be bold in decision making to say we’re going to step up for those orders.

Knowing the visibility that we have from a demand standpoint. So it’s a combination of the decision making approach as well as visibility into the market and what we’ve got from feedback from customers. So I think when people talk about thirty six month lead times, I think those are probably larger turbines in nature, the sort of frame engines that you might see in a large combined cycle plant. But when we look at as you look at the sizing of turbines, there’s sort of a correlation between lead time and size. So the larger units and I’m talking multiple 100 megawatt units, they have more likely a three to four year kind of lead time.

And as we look at the spot that we’re in today, it’s more of a twelve to eighteen month timeframe.

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: And Don, you got to ask this question about the business. It’s starting to feel very lonely. It’s having a fantastic quarter.

Dereck Whitfield, Analyst, Texas Capital: I’m sure. One final question, the 32% that you highlight that is uncontracted today, but you’re in negotiations on that. Would you expect that to be contracted under a certain timeframe, maybe the next six to nine months or so? Or do you think it’s going to take longer than that?

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: I think it’s going to happen well within six to nine months.

Dereck Whitfield, Analyst, Texas Capital: Okay. I appreciate everything else has been

Kyle Ramachandran, President and CFO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: asked. Same time.

Conference Operator: With no further questions, this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Bill Zapzardler for any closing remarks.

Bill Zartler, Chairman and CEO, Solaris Energy Infrastructure: Thank you, Wyatt. And thank you everyone for joining us today. We’re obviously off to a strong start in 2025 and our entire team is excited about the growth opportunities for the company. I believe we have the right business with the right people and culture that will help us continue to deliver value to our shareholders. I’d like to thank all of our employees, customers and suppliers for their continued partnership in making Solaris a success.

Thank you all and we look forward to sharing our progress with you in a few months.

Conference Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

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