Turner Industries has created a new subsidiary, Turner Industries Energy Services, that will focus on the growing renewable energy sector.
Like its parent company, the new entity—which will be branded as simply Turner Energy—will provide industrial construction services but will target the growing opportunities outside the traditional petrochemical sector.
“While we still want to build traditional petrochemical facilities, we’re going to be looking at solar, biodiesel, carbon capture,” says Turner Industries President Steven Toups. “Our customer base is moving towards the Paris accords and we want to support them in anything they need.”
In 2020, consumption of renewable energy in the U.S. grew for the fifth year in a row, reaching a record high 12% of total U.S. energy consumption.
Renewable energy was the only source of U.S. energy consumption that increased in 2020 over 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, an independent research organization. Fossil fuel and nuclear consumption declined.
Turner Energy will be staffed and run both by existing Turner Industries employees and also new talent that will be recruited as the business expands.
It may be a while before that expansion occurs. Large-scale renewable projects take at least a couple of years to come to fruition. Toups says Turner Energy wants to be ready once companies make a final investment decision.
“People are beginning to pivot and move in this direction,” he says. “All the conversations going on now are still awaiting FID. Once those decisions are made, we want to be in a position to take advantage of them. We want to be at the table.”
