Portland vitality firm Powin faces shutdown
In a layoff discover, the corporate advised state and native officers that 96 staff in Oregon and 149 distant staff — a complete of 245 — may lose their jobs.
TUALATIN, Ore. — This story comes from the Portland Enterprise Journal, a KGW information companion. The total story and different protection could be discovered right here.
A month after a spherical of layoffs, Tualatin grid-scale vitality storage firm Powin on Friday revealed “the potential cessation of enterprise operations” at its headquarters and a Portland workplace.
In a layoff discover, the corporate advised state and native officers that 96 staff in Oregon and 149 distant staff — a complete of 245 — may lose their jobs.
“If Powin LLC’s current enterprise circumstances don’t enhance, it’s presently anticipated {that a} layoff will happen on or earlier than July 28, 2025,” the corporate mentioned.
It is a stunning fall for a corporation that had grown into one of many world’s largest grid-scale battery vitality storage system suppliers, drawing funding of a minimum of $235 million since personal fairness companies took a controlling curiosity in early 2021.
The corporate, in its discover, cited “unexpected enterprise circumstances,” including that its scenario, “in addition to the financial system typically, stay dynamic and fluid.”
Powin flourished by marrying Chinese language manufactured lithium-ion battery cells with proprietary system expertise to serve a rising marketplace for grid-scale storage. It has equipped tasks world wide, however the U.S. is its most necessary market.
One consider its demise may very well be Trump administration insurance policies — each tariffs and the doable finish of a variety of renewable vitality and vitality storage incentives. Home battery manufacturing is slowly ramping up primarily based on Biden administration insurance policies, however in a Might 2024 interview, Powin CEO Jeff Waters mentioned he did not anticipate U.S. factories to start churning out batteries till late in 2025, and solely slowly at first.