Clarius Park Hardeeville, the future home of TS Conductor's second U.S. manufacturing facility. Source | TS Conductor

Early March 2025, TS Conductor (TS, Huntington Beach, Calif., U.S.) announced its plans to open a second U.S. manufacturing facility near the Port of Savannah in Hardeeville, South Carolina. Production is scheduled to begin by the end of 2025 to meet growing demand for the company’s patented aluminum encapsulated carbon core (AECC) conductor technology. Comprised of pre-tensioned carbon fiber composite core, an aluminum encapsulation protective layer and fully annealed aluminum conducting strands, AECC enables utilities to double or triple transmission capacity while cutting costs for customers.

The three-phase project represents a total investment of $134 million and is expected to create approximately 462 advanced manufacturing jobs. Phase one is scheduled to begin operations by the end of 2025. TS plans to make major investments in local workforce development in partnership with SouthernCarolina Alliance and the Hardeeville Career Advancement & Workforce Training Program. “South Carolina’s business-friendly environment, skilled workforce and strong support made it the perfect choice for our expansion,” says TS CEO Jason Huang, Ph.D. 

The facility comes at a critical time as the U.S. faces substantial growth in electricity demand for the first time in decades. The rapid expansion of AI data centers is straining an aging grid that still largely relies on century-old technology. Meanwhile, the grid needs to integrate a queue of new domestic energy projects, from solar and wind to nuclear and geothermal. TS says its technology enables utilities to rapidly upgrade transmission capacity while improving reliability and resilience against extreme weather events to prevent blackouts.

Phase one of the three-phase expansion is supported in part by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through its Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains. In October 2024, the DOE announced funding for 14 different advanced energy manufacturing projects, including TS. A major goal of the project is to ensure sufficient domestic supply of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power lines as massive grid expansion is planned nationwide.

For the first phase of the expansion, TS will move into a 301,275-square-foot building in the new Clarius Park Hardeeville at the Port of Savannah, a master-planned industrial park developed via a joint venture between Clarius Partners and Peakline Real Estate Funds consisting of more than 2.7 million square feet of Class A industrial warehouse space and a power substation with capacity up to 90 megawatts within the park boundary. TS plans to expand within Clarius Park Hardeeville an additional 1 million square feet in future phases. The location is within 10 miles of the Georgia Ports Authority's Garden City Terminal, the U.S.’ third-largest port of entry and fastest growing container terminal, which will support TS’ international expansion.

In July 2024, TS raised $60 million in an oversubscribed growth round to fund the expansion.Investors include Blue Earth Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy & Environment Investment Inc., Edison International, Gates Frontier, National Grid Partners, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, Quanta Services and Wellington Management.