en.Wedoany.com Reported - Grid technology startup Heron Power will invest more than $100 million to convert a former warehouse in Morgan Hill, California, into a large-scale factory for advanced grid equipment, with production slated to begin by the end of 2027.

The 286,000-square-foot facility will produce the Heron Link, a 5-megawatt medium-voltage power conversion system designed for large-scale energy projects and data centers. The company expects an annual output of up to 10,000 units, equivalent to over 40 gigawatts of annual capacity—roughly three-quarters of new U.S. grid capacity added in 2025—and will create more than 600 manufacturing, engineering, and operations jobs.

Currently, the U.S. grid faces growing interconnection demand from renewable energy, battery storage, electric vehicles, and large data centers, yet much of the equipment used to connect these technologies still relies on older hardware and imported components. Heron states that over 80% of critical grid components in the U.S., such as transformers and inverters, are imported, and the new plant aims to boost domestic supply to expand the grid.

Heron Link replaces multiple traditional grid devices with a single modular system, using software-controlled semiconductors to manage power conversion, improving efficiency, reducing physical footprint, and enabling renewable energy, battery storage, and data center projects to connect directly to medium-voltage transmission without transformers. This design targets one of the biggest bottlenecks facing new power projects—securing the grid hardware that links generation sources to large end users.

Drew Baglino, CEO and founder of Heron Power, stated that the U.S. grid must expand faster than it has over the past few decades, with artificial intelligence and electric vehicles driving new demand, and solar and storage adding new supply. He noted that the equipment running the grid has not changed in fifty years, and Heron Factory One in Morgan Hill is the way to address this issue, as the company will be the first to manufacture the leapfrog technology the grid needs at scale in the U.S.

After evaluating sites in multiple states, Heron chose Morgan Hill, placing its first large-scale manufacturing base near its engineering headquarters and the Bay Area manufacturing workforce. The project is partially funded by a $26.4 million tax credit from the California Competes award, administered by the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. The City of Morgan Hill, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), state partners, and real estate advisor JLL participated in the site selection collaboration. The company plans to begin site preparation immediately and expects to start mass production by the end of 2027.

Heron stated that this factory will help the company transition from building power conversion technology to large-scale production, supporting major energy and data center projects. The company believes that more compact, software-controlled power hardware can help utilities and developers address grid expansion and load growth. The Morgan Hill plant is the first step in this plan and marks the beginning of the company's effort to combine domestic manufacturing with a new approach to grid power conversion.