SOLV Energy (NASDAQ:MWH) executives highlighted record financial performance in 2025, a sharply higher backlog, and an outlook for another step up in revenue and earnings in 2026 during the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call—its first since becoming a public company.
Safety and market demand backdrop
CEO George Hershman opened the call by emphasizing safety as a core operating priority, citing a total recordable incident rate (TRIR) of 0.48 and a lost-time incident rate (LTIR) of 0.19. Hershman said the TRIR is 70% below the industry average and attributed the results to disciplined processes, field leadership, and investment in dedicated safety personnel.
Lifecycle strategy and backlog
Management positioned SOLV Energy as a lifecycle infrastructure services provider across the “full 35-year life of a power plant,” spanning engineering and design, procurement, construction, and long-term operations and maintenance (O&M). Hershman said the company operates across the 48 continental U.S. states with more than 2,600 employees, including 1,950 in the field, and manages over 2,000 local hired or union dispatch workers daily on a temporary basis.
Hershman said SOLV has completed more than 500 projects, constructed over 21 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, and is under contract to manage more than 20 GW of generation across 150 power plants. As of Dec. 31, 2025, the company reported backlog of more than $8 billion.
In prepared remarks, management emphasized that its EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) work can lead to long-duration O&M relationships, describing O&M arrangements as five-year contracts with automatic annual renewals. The company also discussed what it called “embedded revenue” within its installed base, estimating that over a 35-year project life, customers could spend roughly $7.4 billion on preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, and inverter replacement for the more than 20 GW it currently manages. Hershman noted that only about $540 million of that estimate is reflected in backlog today, which he said underscores potential future opportunity.
2025 results: record revenue and profitability
CFO Chad Plotkin said 2025 was a record year. Fourth-quarter revenue increased 80% year over year to $794 million, and full-year revenue totaled approximately $2.49 billion, up 35% from 2024. Plotkin said growth was driven by the core EPC business and the company’s “existing infrastructure” services business, which contributed $113 million for the year—an increase of nearly 55% year over year.
Profitability also reached records, according to Plotkin. He said fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 gross margin was “over 18%,” with gross profit of $144 million in the quarter and $464 million for the year. Plotkin attributed the performance primarily to “strong productivity and cost containment” in EPC and contributions from the services business. Adjusted EBITDA was $100 million in the fourth quarter and $342 million for the full year, which Plotkin said was “more than doubling” from 2024.
Plotkin said backlog ended 2025 at $8 billion, up 87% from year-end 2024, providing “meaningful visibility into future performance.” He added that, based on customer conversations, 100% of backlog is with safe harbor projects, and that signed backlog relates to fully enforceable LNTP and FNTP agreements.
2026 guidance and capital position after IPO
With the “strength of our backlog,” Plotkin initiated 2026 guidance calling for revenue of $3.72 billion to $3.82 billion, which he said represents a 51% increase at the midpoint compared with 2025. The company guided for gross margin of 15.6% to 16.2% and adjusted EBITDA of $400 million to $420 million, which management said would represent additional records.
Plotkin also discussed the company’s balance sheet following the IPO, saying net proceeds of approximately $553 million allowed SOLV Energy to “fully delever the balance sheet” while retaining additional cash. He added that the company expanded its credit facility to $200 million, which he said provides flexibility to support growth.
Looking ahead, Plotkin said the company’s financial goals include meeting expectations, using balance sheet capacity for “accretive growth” through expanded service offerings, and continuing its “professionalization” as a public company, including Sarbanes-Oxley readiness.
Q&A: margins, supply chain, storage mix, and M&A
During Q&A, management addressed the relationship between 2025 margins and the 2026 outlook. Hershman said the business has seasonality and that 2025 benefited from strong performance across regions as well as “large service projects” and “large repair projects” that can contribute meaningfully but are “harder to predict” and typically not forecasted in long-term projections. Plotkin added that 2026 includes “a lot of new starts of projects,” and management framed the margin range as a reasonable assumption given underwriting at the start of work.
Asked about fuel costs and higher gas prices, Hershman said direct fuel costs have “less than 1% impact” on project costs, while noting there can be shipping-related effects. He said the company was not seeing supply chain disruptions at the time of the call, including issues tied to the Middle East, and pointed to force majeure provisions in contracts.
On competitive dynamics, Hershman said demand remains strong and that the competitive landscape is narrowing because fewer providers can execute projects at the scale now being requested. On bookings, management said its pipeline continues converting to backlog and that demand remains robust, though it emphasized that contract cycles are not “immediate sales” because projects involve significant capital commitments. Hershman added that conversions from LNTPs to FNTPs were on schedule.
On safe harbor activity in the broader market, Hershman said he had heard reports of “something over 200 GW” of safe-harbored product, though he noted that safe harbor activity occurs at the customer level and SOLV does not have direct visibility into all of it.
Management also provided color on storage, saying there is increasing momentum for both standalone and hybrid solutions. Plotkin said that of the roughly $8 billion backlog at year-end, about $2 billion relates to standalone storage and/or hybrid solar-plus-battery projects.
Finally, when asked about acquisitions, Hershman said the company “will transact in 2026,” adding that opportunities would align with the growth strategies previously outlined. Plotkin said 2026 expectations are based on where the company is today and that future capital allocation would be done “prudently and accretively.”
About SOLV Energy (NASDAQ:MWH)
SOLV Energy (NASDAQ: MWH) is a renewable energy company that develops, constructs and operates solar and energy storage projects. The firm provides solutions aimed at reducing customers’ reliance on traditional grid power by pairing photovoltaic systems with battery storage where appropriate. SOLV’s activities are centered on delivering commercial-scale and distributed generation projects for business, institutional and public sector clients.
The company’s services encompass multiple phases of project delivery, including site assessment, system design, procurement, engineering and construction, and ongoing operations and maintenance.
