Solaris Energy Infrastructure Inc (SEI) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Solaris Energy Infrastructure fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings teleconference and webcast. (Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Yvonne Fletcher, Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to the Solaris fourth quarter 2024 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 the news section on our website. I'll now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Bill Zartler.

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 the mobile power generation business that is now Solaris Power Solutions.

I'll start this morning by giving you an update on our power solutions 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 multiyear customer contracts, we were on a path to grow to around 700 megawatts by early 2026. 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 2027. 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 jointly own 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 picture 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. I'm excited about the continued momentum we observed 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 gigawatts.

A single data center today can require well over 1 gigawatt of power and some oilfield and other microgrids 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 time frame is extending thus, behind the meter power is evolving towards 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 24/7 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 Yzaguirre to our Board. Max as 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 US 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 5 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 are well suited for larger projects, including those requiring gigawatts of power 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're observing an evolving need to have behind-the-meter power on location for extended periods of time. A few of those cases, and 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 NOx emissions available in the turbine market.

This advantaged 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 can include providing power for other data centers, other commercial and industrial facilities, oil and gas production and 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. Discipline 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 Solaris systems, and we are effectively sold out of our capital 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' 26th 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 the Solaris 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.

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 at our latest thoughts on financing. 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 forma for all deliveries, approximately 90% of the resulting fleet will consist of 16.5 and 38-megawatt uses, 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 2027. 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 tenor 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 customers. 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 their 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 we'll 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 noncontrolling 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 450 megawatts are available for future contracting with customers for deliveries beginning in the second half of 2026. 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 tenor. In a very short period of time, we have extended terms 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 lead 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 structure 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 million to $500 million of adjusted EBITDA on a consolidated basis. Accounting for the contemplated joint venture structure, we expect adjusted EBITDA net to Solaris approximately $400 million to $425 million. 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 their 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 emission control equipment is an example where we have opportunities to continue growing our earnings per customer allocation. On a consolidated basis, the incremental order should add approximately $600 million to our prior capital estimates, including allowance for balance of plant and emissions control technology. We expect the JV to reduce Solaris' capital requirements by approximately $215 million. We are 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 2024 performance and our guidance expectations for the next two quarters. During the fourth quarter, Solaris generated total revenue of $96 million, 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 million 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 260 megawatts in Solaris Power Solutions. For the first quarter of 2025, we are increasing our activity guidance as measured by average megawatts earning revenue by 20% to 360 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 420 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 2024 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 million 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 million in Q2. These items led to adjusted EBITDA between $44 million and $48 million in Q1 and adjusted EBITDA between $50 million and $55 million 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 a 26th consecutive dividend of $0.12 per share, which will be paid on March 21 to holders of record as of March 11, 2025. Considering our latest share count, this should equate to a little more than $8 million.

Pro forma for the first quarter dividend payment, we will have returned $198 million 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 return 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.

(Operator Instructions) Stephen Gengaro, Stifel.

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, what could this look like two or three years out? Like kind of what's the vision from here internally?

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 -- a lot of talk about commercial activity going on around it, and we're balancing how fast we believe we can execute with a combination of having growing our team to the right level and having the right set of equipment supplies both generation and distribution balance of 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.

Okay. And then my follow-up question was, I think I have a sense for this from what you announced in the level of detail you guys provided is very helpful. When we think about the profitability per megawatt, and then we also think about the -- on the other side, you have the price that you're paying per megawatt. Has there been any -- it doesn't seem like -- 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?

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 the tariffs and how that impacts some of the supply chain. But it's not been materially yet, and it's slowly creeping up, yes. And I think we -- that will get and the market will absorb those additional costs.

Yes, I think what I would add is the initial fleet in this business was all mobile in nature. It 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 rate is we can be a little bit more competitive from a dollar per megawatt capital cost as we transition to the equipment that's meant to stay in 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 customers 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.

Derek Podhaizer, Piper Sandler.

Congrats on all the announcements. I just wanted to talk about, obviously, the six-year contracts, a 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 generate 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.

I think, first and foremost, as we alluded to it in our color on 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 21st 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 is 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've contextualized.

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 utility. So I think there's an embedded if you're going to build one of these, 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.

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 US. There are many end markets that are likely to be short powered. And so this is a very large secular theme that's not predicated on just simply one macro output.

Right. That makes sense. And 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 multiyear 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?

We have numerous ongoing conversations both with large industrial complexes that are short power as well as data centers. And so which one of those ends up with the piece of the power, the next power and there's potential expansions beyond that. 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 Woodfield, Texas Capital.

Congrats on the quarter and your JV announcement. I have two questions for you guys, and they're both related to your Power Solutions business. First, regarding the 450 megawatts of uncontracted capacity, how aggressively will you look to market that given the tightness in the market dynamics for behind the meter solutions?

I mean, we're in a lot 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 of 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.

And the timing of it is 12-plus months out from a delivery standpoint. So a lot of time under the curve available.

Terrific. And then on the second question, and thinking about some of the announcements from majors, including Chevron and Exxon Mobil, how important are lower emission solutions to your data center customers?

I think it's a mix 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 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 2 PPM level. And we start off even with the mobile versions of this capital solar equipment at a sub 9 PPM with their Solarox 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 the market.

Jeff LeBlanc, TPH.

I just wanted to ask around the dynamics of the order itself and how your relationship with the OEM led to this, the quota capacity of 38-megawatt seems to imply that at Solar's new offering. So also curious to see how much does this order represent of their largest capacity moving forward?

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 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 on 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 that extends far beyond the history of Solaris being in the power space with the team that we brought in the MER acquisition.

[Thomas Merck], Janney Montgomery Scott.

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 after that.

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 other. And I think that part of that business, our customers' business is in our business, but are evolving how we make sure that it runs well and runs as reliably as possible. And that's an ongoing effort and it's live.

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 a 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 and 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.

And then ERCOT has about 20 gigawatts of large load trying to interconnect by the summer of '27, 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 do you think about the possibility of some of those switching to your solution, for instance?

Well, I think some of them clearly will. I think some of the announcements have already pointed in that direction out there. I mean we're not heavily weighted to ERCOT right now. And so 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 some really 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 Power as a Service and match that with our customers' needs. I think we want to make sure there's a good fit there. And I think it's a -- there's a lot of noise and a lot of talk and there sometimes maybe the same particular load, maybe talked about 4 or 5 times, and it's only 1 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.

And then last one for me, and I'll turn it back. Just on admissions, 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, you've given the NOx emissions rates there or logistically just kind of navigating the requirements? Are you helping out in any way there? And thats it.

Yes. As every customer is different, we will roll up our sleeves and generally, you 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.

Sean Mitchell, Daniel Energy Partners.

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 recips to support you're behind the meter solution? Or are you going to stick with just turbines?

Yes. And remember, we operate a fleet of about 30 megawatts of small generation today in recips. And from a starting motor perspective, I think we probably have another 8 to 10 megawatts of starting motors in the 500 to 750-megawatt size. And I think we'll continue to see that. We are studying hard how you pair these up in various load profiles and 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 a lot of it, but I think there will be opportunities where you may look at how we maybe combine turbines with large recips or maybe there's jobs that we want to look at that may be more suited for a bank of gas-fired recips.

Got it. And then maybe one more for me. Just as you -- we've heard a lot about how fast you've grown here. As you -- is it going to take some time to absorb the kind of current order? Are you going to be out kind of digest the current order? Are you going to be actively pursuing similar deals for '27 and beyond? Or kind of how should we think about that?

I mean we are -- the good news is this is spread out in a 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 it 20 different sites.

So there's 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 tenor and economics.

David Smith, Pickering Energy Partners.

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 I 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 360. Could you indicate how much of that increase relates to accelerated deliveries versus losing third-party equipment?

It's a mix of both. So we were able to pick up some earlier deliveries on some of the S&T 130 at the end of 2024. And so we've been able to get those out to the customer, which has 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, again, the Power as a Service model. So we have opportunistically 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 owned units, which obviously will have incremental economics for us.

Don Crist, Johnson Rice.

One question for 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 36 months for delivery. Was there something that [Tell] had a relationship or something of that nature that allows you to get the new order kind of quicker than that? And if you placed another order today, would it be closer to that 36-month level?

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 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 36 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 hundred-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 12- to 18-month time frame.

And Don, you got to answer the question about the CC business. It's starting to feel very lonely. It's having a fantastic quarter.

I'm Sure. One final question. The 32% that you highlight that is uncontracted today but are in negotiations on that. Would you expect that to be contracted under a certain time frame, maybe the next six to nine months or so? Or do you think it's going to take longer than that?

I think it's going to happen well within six to nine months.

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

Thank you, Ryan, 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.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.