Fluor Corp. has high hopes for its renewable energy department.
The recently launched unit of the Irving, Texas-based engineering company has set up headquarters in Irvine and is positioning itself to be ready for large contracts from utilities companies to build solar powered plants.
The company calls the new business an emerging market, driven by government regulations set to make energy cleaner.
As we get new projects the numbers will grow,?said Brad Friesen, who was recently charged with leading the unit as vice president of the renewables business line. ?his is really just beginning now.?
The recession pushed the company to refocus its business after demand for Fluor? oil and gas services waned.
The boom of 2006 to 2008 prompted the expansion of its local operations, which includes multiple offices in Irvine. In 2008, it grew its local workforce by about 15% to 2,270, including contract workers.
But the company laid off an undisclosed number of workers after the economy crashed.
Fluor is planning to staff back up and add an undetermined number of workers to its 1,600 employees in Southern California. There are about 200 Fluor workers in Irvine assigned to its power division, which incorporates the renewable business, including business from wind, solar, geothermal and biomass technologies.
The renewable business also is run from an office in Spain.
Locally, Fluor also does work for the chemical, mining and transportation industries. Other locations handle government projects such as nuclear cleanup and highway building.
It? not clear when the company may get renewable energy contracts. Friesen says it could happen as early as next year.
On the solar side, Fluor is pursuing six ?erious efforts?to land contracts. Each could easily exceed $1 billion, according to Friesen.
Utility companies looking to add solar are Southern California Edison Co. in Rosemead, part of Edison International; San Diego? Sempra Energy; and San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric Co., part of PG & E; Corp.
The solar plants are expected to be large, according to Friesen.
?e?e talking 50 to 250 megawatts,?he said. ?nes out there now tend to be between 10 and 30.?
The solar market is expected to grow by 30% to 35% a year, from a total of 10 gigawatts today to 200 to 400 gigawatts by 2020, according to McKinsey & Co., a New York-based research company.
Fluor is competing for contracts with its usual coterie, which includes Pasadena? Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Clinton, NJ-based Foster Wheeler AG and Houston-based KBR Inc.
Fluor also is designing and building plants that build polysilicon?aterial for solar panels?n China, Norway and the U.S., as well as a solar panel manufacturing plant in Singapore.
On the wind side of the business, Fluor already has been busy building what it claims to be the world? largest offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom.
Biomass technology, which burns woodchips and industrial waste, also holds potential for contracts. Geothermal technology, which involves tapping into heat stored in the earth and converting it to power, could be another source of business, but is less renewable, according to Friesen.
Friesen reports directly to Dave Dunning, president of Fluor? power group.
Fluor had revenue of $22.3 billion in 2008. It? publicly traded shares held a recent market value of nearly $8.4 billion.
Three years ago, it moved its headquarters to Texas to be closer to customers. It took with it 60 executives and corporate workers and left behind almost 1,200 workers.
Fluor has its roots in Fluor Construction Co., which was founded in Santa Ana in 1912 by Swiss immigrant John Simon Fluor.
