Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises (NYSE: BW) is an American power generation company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The company was founded in 1867 by Stephen Wilcox and George Babcock as Babcock, Wilcox & Company to manufacture and market Wilcox’s patented water-tube boiler. B&W's list of innovations and firsts include the world’s first installed utility boiler (1881); manufacture of boilers to power New York City’s first subway (1902); first pulverized coal power plant (1918); design and manufacture of components for USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine (1953–55); the first supercritical pressure coal-fired boiler (1957); design and supply of reactors for the first U.S. built nuclear-powered surface ship, NS Savannah (1961).
The company previously known as The Babcock & Wilcox Company provided design, engineering, manufacturing, construction and facilities management services to nuclear, renewable, fossil power, industrial and government customers worldwide. B&W's boilers supply more than 300,000 megawatts of installed capacity in over 90 countries around the world. A reactor from B&W was destroyed by a nuclear meltdown in the Three Mile Island accident. During World War II, over half of the US Navy fleet was powered by Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The company has its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has major operations in Lynchburg, Virginia; Barberton, Ohio; Euclid, Ohio; Lancaster, Ohio; West Point, Mississippi; Mount Vernon, Indiana; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Erwin, Tennessee; Amarillo, Texas; Cambridge, Ontario; the Danish city of Esbjerg; and the German city of Straubing. B&W also has joint major joint venture companies in Beijing and the Indian city of Pune.
On June 30, 2015, Babcock & Wilcox completed a spinoff from BWX Technologies, its former parent which is now headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia. The two companies began trading separately on July 1.
B&W employs approximately 5,700 people, in addition to several thousand joint venture employees.
B&W Power Generation Group, Inc. (B&W PGG) is based in Barberton, Ohio and provides engineering, design, construction and manufacturing services to the fossil and renewable power generation sectors and to heavy industry worldwide. B&W PGG and its subsidiaries have facilities in Ohio; Wisconsin; Arona, Italy; Beijing, China; Esbjerg, Denmark; and technology licensees around the world.
B&W MEGTEC
B&W SPIG
Diamond Power International, Inc.
B&W PGG Canada, Ltd.
In 1867, Providence, Rhode Island, residents Stephen Wilcox and his partner George Herman Babcock patented the Babcock & Wilcox Non-Explosive Boiler, which used water filled tubes and de-nucleate boiling to generate steam more safely than either under-fire or fire-tube boilers. The boilers more safely generated higher pressure steam and was more efficient (as an energy to steam converter) than existing designs.
In 1891, Babcock & Wilcox Ltd is established as a separate United Kingdom company, to be responsible for all sales outside the US and Cuba.
In 1898, Robert Jurenka and Alois Seidl signed an agreement with the British Babcock & Wilcox Ltd to make the Berlin, Germany Babcock sales office into a subsidiary of the British company; a factory in Oberhausen in the Ruhr district made the boiler designed by the American engineers.
In 1902 the New York City's first subway is powered by B&W boilers.
During 1907 and 1909 Theodore Roosevelt's Great White Fleet were powered by B&W Boilers.
In 1929 B&W installs the world's first commercial size recovery boiler using the magnesium bisulfite process in Quebec, Canada.
Between 1941 and 1945 B&W designed and delivered 4,100 marine boilers for combat and merchant ships, including 95 percent of the US fleet in Tokyo Bay at Japanese surrender.
In 1942, the company developed the cyclone furnace.
Between 1943 and 1945 B&W provided components, materials and process development for Manhattan Project.
Between 1949 and 1952 B&W provided the 8 boilers for the SS United States, the fastest ocean liner ever constructed.
Between 1953 and 1955 B&W designed and fabricated components for USS Nautilus (SSN-571), world’s first nuclear-powered submarine.
In 1961 B&W designed and supplied reactors for world’s first commercial nuclear ship NS Savannah.
In 1962 B&W designed and furnished reactor systems for B&W's first commercial reactor, Indian Point, using HEU 233.
In 1975 B&W designed and built components for liquid metal fast breeder reactors.
In 1975 the long term business agreements with the British Babcock & Wilcox Ltd were ended. Subsequently, the British company was renamed Babcock International Group plc.
In 1978 B&W designed and built the nuclear reactor that was involved in the Three Mile Island accident.
In 1999 B&W was awarded the contract to develop fuel cells and steam reforming for US Navy.
On February 22, 2000, B&W filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in part as a result of thousands of claims for personal injury due to prolonged exposure to asbestos and asbestos fibers. Claims included asbestosis, lung cancer, pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma. As a condition of emerging from bankruptcy, B&W created a trust fund to compensate victims, but for amounts far less than settlements paid in individual personal injury lawsuits.
After B&W emerged from bankruptcy in 2006, B&W and BWX Technologies, both subsidiaries of the McDermott International, Inc., merged on 26 November 2007 to form The Babcock & Wilcox Companies, headed by President John Fees. The old company logo was changed.
On June 10, 2009, B&W unveiled B&W Modular Nuclear Energy, LLC (B&W MNE). On the same day, B&W MNE announced its plans to design and develop the B&W mPower reactor, a modular, scalable nuclear reactor. The B&W mPower reactor design is a 125 megawatt, passively safe Advanced Light Water Reactor (ALWR) (a Generation III reactor) with a below-ground containment structure. The reactor is set to be manufactured in a factory, shipped by rail, then buried underground.
On May 12, 2010, B&W announced that it and its subsidiaries would be spun off from its parent company, McDermott International, Inc. The headquarters moved from Lynchburg, Virginia to Charlotte. and the company became The Babcock & Wilcox Company.
On August 2, 2010, B&W began trading on the New York Stock Exchange as BWC.
On July 1, 2015, Babcock & Wilcox and BWX Technologies, its former parent headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia, began trading separately.
