One Power cuts staff; meets with lenders

FINDLAY — Findlay-based wind-turbine builder and industrial power supplier One Power Co. has reduced its workforce in a reorganization, the company reported Thursday. One Power, which had employed over 80 people, did not disclose how many people lost their jobs. Its local office is located at 12385 Township Road 215. "One Power is working with its lenders and creditors on this reorganization," the company said in its statement. It declined to say any more. One Power had been taking steps to become a public company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January 2025. But by May 2025, One Power filed with the SEC to withdraw its registration statement. The company cited "market conditions." Conditional cash One Power formerly was One Energy Enterprises. The new company was formed when it received a $300 million-plus supply of cash from an investment group for growth opportunities. TortoiseEcofin Acquisition Corp. III — the company with whom One Energy "merged" — was a "special purpose acquisition company," whose sole purpose was to find a company that was not public and to merge with it to make it public, said Jereme Kent, chief executive officer of One Power and the former One Energy. It was August 2023 when the $300 million-plus cash infusion was announced. It was a bullish time for One Energy, soon to become One Power. "The phrase that (Tortoise) used when they raised the money was 'We're looking for an energy transition company.' There's a slight nuance between being just green and being transitioned," Kent said in August 2023. "Energy transition is about how large factories and how the economy can electrify and get cleaner. It's a little bit more than just clean energy. "It's also about how do you get factories to have more electric systems; what happens as electric semis start coming out in the market, what happens as cars start switching more to electric and so you see more and more things going to electricity and that electricity becoming cleaner and cleaner over time," Kent said. "What is the new power grid of the future (going to) look like." Vision trumped Kent's company, which started as a wind turbine builder, soon began offering power for electric semis and for emerging industries like digital currency mining and indoor farming. It unveiled its Findlay Megawatt Hub, a 30-megawatt site which is expandable to 150MW. But as Kent's company grew and transformed and bullishly looked to the future, there was something else in future. That was the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. At the outset of his second term, the president in January ordered federal agencies to stop spending money approved by Congress when it passed the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which together pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy and electric vehicles. The order appeared aimed at stopping the government from distributing funds to manufacturers of electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels and other clean energy, even if grants or loans had already been approved and binding contracts were signed. The Energy Department plans to eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for major renewable and efficiency projects this year, the latest move by the Trump administration to undo efforts to shift the nation away from fossil fuels, The New York Times reported in July. Funding cuts The Trump administration has targeted solar and wind power and energy efficiency programs for funding cuts in its push to reshape the nation's energy future. The administration has emphasized broader use of fossil fuels, including natural gas for electricity and oil for transportation. President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," passed by Congress in July, will make tax credits for large clean energy projects end after 2027. The Trump administration has sharply escalated its attacks on wind and solar power, the New York Times reported in August, issuing a barrage of policies that could halt the construction of renewable energy projects on public and private land across the country. The Interior Department is now requiring dozens of formerly routine consultations and approvals for wind and solar projects to undergo new layers of political review by the interior secretary's office, a policy that is causing significant permitting delays, the Times reported. The agency is also opening investigations into bird deaths caused by wind farms and withdrawing millions of acres of federal waters previously available for leasing by offshore wind companies. The Interior Department also signaled it would review wind projects that have already been approved by the federal government but are being sued by opponents, and consider rescinding their permits, a step that could halt projects already under construction, the Times reported.