Clean-energy firm relocating to Greensville

Published May 29, 2015 by Veronica Garabelli

A green-energy com­­pany soon will make Greensville County its home.

The company, 510Nano Inc., plans to move its headquarters from Durham, N.C., to the Greensville County Industrial Park during the next year. It will build a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility for the production of solar power systems. The $11 million project is expected to create 113 jobs within three years.

Reginald Parker, CEO of  510Nano, says it develops energy power plants and develops clean technology.  The company has a solar-energy farm in Garysburg, N.C. (which sells the electricity it generates to Richmond-based Dominion Resources) and two other solar farms in Los Gatos, Calif.

510Nano plans to build three solar plants in North Carolina this year and a 5-megawatt solar farm at its new site in Greensville next year. The company also will have an energy and technology center at its Greensville site, where it will develop new technologies and lines of business, Parker says.

Parker says the new jobs in Greensville will range from plant and project managers to logistics operators and development personnel. Wages will be above average for Greensville County, about $15 an hour on average, he says.

During the site selection process, Parker says that, in addition to the commonwealth, his company considered locations in Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware and Texas. That list eventually was shortened to three states.

Greensville was able to provide land in a strategic location, including access to major highways.  “That greatly differentiated what Virginia was offering [from] the other states, North Carolina and Georgia,” Parker says.

Another significant factor was Virginia’s incentive package, which included a $200,000 grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund and $635,000 in Tobacco Region Opportunity funds.

Although Parker says that incentives were important and had to be considered, 510Nano also looked at the impact it would have on the community, which had underutilized resources.

“So us coming there, we’re able to help them unlock a lot of those potentials, and that actually makes us feel good about what we’re doing,” Parker says.

510Nano plans to become B Corp certified later this year. The certification means a company intends to make a profit, but its primary goals also include making a positive impact on the environment and society. “It’s not only about dollars and cents, but it’s about people and the environment,” Parker says.