Santa Cruz County just quietly landed another heavyweight in the “infrastructure that makes everything else possible” category.

Heron Power, based in Scotts Valley, is building solid-state transformers, the kind of unglamorous, deeply important hardware that sits between electricity generation and the things that actually use power. If that sounds boring, it is, until you remember that the modern economy now depends on data centers, batteries, and renewables that all want cleaner, faster, more controllable electricity than the century-old grid was designed to deliver.

This week, Heron Power announced a $140 million raise to accelerate manufacturing and scale production of its “Heron Link” solid-state transformer platform. The quick follow-on is telling: the company raised a $38 million Series A in May 2025, and now it is back with a much larger round because customers are effectively telling them to move faster. According to CEO Drew Baglino (a longtime Tesla engineering leader), customer interest has already topped 40 gigawatts worth of product. That is not “a few pilots.” That is “build a factory” demand.

So what’s the big deal about solid-state transformers?

Traditional transformers are sturdy, proven, and also mostly the same technology we have relied on for generations. Solid-state transformers add power electronics and digital control, which can make them smaller, more responsive, and better suited for a grid where power flows are getting messier: solar ramps up and down, batteries charge and discharge on command, and data centers pull huge loads that can change quickly.

Heron Power’s pitch is blunt: simplify the system. Baglino told TechCrunch their approach can remove about 70% of the gear involved in certain electrical setups, eliminating multiple failure points and cutting costs. For some data center applications, he said savings could be dramatic.

And data centers are only part of the story. Heron Power says data centers are about a third of its current business, with the rest split between solar and grid-scale batteries, where speed and flexibility in voltage conversion can be a major advantage.

The funding is earmarked to build a factory capable of producing 40 gigawatts of Heron Link transformers annually. The company expects pilot production in early 2027, then a ramp over the following two years.

Jobs?

If you live in Santa Cruz County, that last sentence should jump out. Factories do not run on vibes. A production ramp of this scale tends to pull in manufacturing talent, electrical and power electronics engineers, supply chain and operations leaders, quality technicians, and the whole ecosystem of vendors and service providers that support a fast-growing hardware company.

Heron Power is scaling the kind of “picks and shovels” technology that AI, clean energy, and grid modernization all need. Keep an eye on Scotts Valley. The job postings are unlikely to stay quiet for long.

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