Residential solar player Zeo Energy to acquire concentrated solar tech company Heliogen
Of all the things I expected to read today, “residential solar company buys concentrated solar power / long-duration energy storage tech company,” was not one of them. But here we are: Residential solar player Zeo Energy is acquiring Heliogen, a concentrating solar energy and thermal storage systems company. The transaction is currently expected to close in the third quarter of 2025.
To be sure, the residential solar market looks poised for problems if the tax credit cuts remain in the final version of the Big Beautiful Bill. So, staying ahead of the curve with new revenue streams is a good idea. For example, on a new episode of Power Forward!, we discussed pivoting to repowering jobs.
An expansion into commercial, and utility-scale markets, with completely different technologies like CSP + thermal storage, certainly qualifies as that! Probably not a roadmap many (any) residential players can follow, but an intriguing pivot for Zeo Energy.
“Heliogen brings a set of practical solutions to customers, particularly data centers, looking for longer duration energy storage with substantially lower costs than alternatives on the market,” said Tim Bridgewater, CEO of Zeo Energy. “Through this acquisition, we believe that Zeo will be able to accelerate our vision of serving energy consumers across the spectrum – from residential rooftops to larger-scale industrial solar and storage applications to build an energy platform at scale.”
Zeo Energy background
To be sure, Zeo Energy is not a mom-and-pop solar installer. Zeo Energy went public on March 14, 2024, following a business combination of Sunergy Renewables LLC (a Florida-based regional distributed energy provider) and ESGEN, a blank check acquisition company. Zeo Energy boosted its footprint with the acquisition of Lumio’s forward portfolio in November 2024.
According to Cody Baird, Zeo Energy’s director of procurement and strategic sourcing, in a recent interview with Solar Builder, residential solar national expansion was the plan.
“By the end of this year, we are looking at being active in close to 30 states. We were in 22 states at the end of 2024,” Baird told Solar Builder in a recent interview. While Zeo Energy executes some commercial solar, it has been primarily a residential solar company.
Concentrating on new markets with Heliogen
The definitive merger agreement between Zeo Energy and Heliogen says that Zeo will acquire all of Heliogen’s outstanding equity securities in an all-stock transaction.
Who is Heliogen? They launched with a big splash in 2019, touting Bill Gates as one backer. Progress has been slow since. For the third quarter of 2024 (the most recent earnings report published on its website),, Heliogen reported total revenue of $1.1 million, compared to $2.3 million in the second quarter of 2024 and $2.3 million in the third quarter of 2023. The Texas Steam Plant, Heliogen’s first commercial-scale installation, continued to progress toward mechanical completion in Q1 2025, following impacts on schedule from severe weather events. They also noted “over 2 GW of sales opportunities; outstanding proposals with 5 customers for early design stage projects representing 1 GW.”
What is Heliogen? Heliogen’s concentrated solar solution combines precise mirrors and long-duration thermal storage with technologies like solar PV, AI and computer vision to advance clean energy deployment.
- Computer guided mirrors reflect the sun to a receiver
- The receiver absorbs the concentrated sunlight
- Heat transfers to thermal energy storage for dispatching
- That heat can be converted to steam to produce power on demand
Zeo Energy’s strategic rationale
Following the closing of the transaction, Zeo plans to leverage Heliogen’s brand and intellectual property “to establish a division focused on long-duration energy generation and storage for commercial and industrial-scale facilities, including artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing data centers.”
“We believe this combination offers a compelling opportunity for Heliogen stockholders through the opportunity to participate in the substantial growth potential of the combined company,” added Christiana Obiaya, CEO of Heliogen. “We believe that Zeo’s proven track record and network of customers can enhance the value creation opportunities for Heliogen’s solutions and technical capabilities, while enhancing liquidity for stockholders.”
Expanded Market Reach: The transaction unites Zeo’s existing residential solar and storage footprint with Heliogen’s long-duration energy storage expertise. T
Strengthened Balance Sheet: At close, Zeo anticipates benefiting from Heliogen’s incremental liquidity, supporting investments for future growth in the solar and energy storage space.
Enhanced Financing Capabilities: Zeo’s affiliated financing arm, which has provided over $44 million in clean energy tax equity financing to date, has the ability to be used for future Heliogen utility-scale and long-duration energy storage projects. Accelerated Growth Opportunities: The transaction seeks to position Zeo to capitalize on increasing demand for resilient, cost-effective, low-carbon energy infrastructure, supported by favorable long-term tailwinds and potential tax equity investments.
