Feb 5 2014
RGS Energy, a nationwide leader of turnkey solar energy solutions for residential, commercial, and utility customers, and Altus Power America Management, an investor in and manager of solar power projects, formed a new joint venture, RGS Energy Asset Management LLC. The purpose of the joint venture is to develop, finance and manage up to $150 million of commercial solar projects.
"Our partnership with Altus is unique in that it takes advantage of best practices from both organizations developed over many years of solar energy experience," said Andrew Zaref, vice president of project finance at RGS Energy and president of RGS Energy Asset Management. "It also represents RGS Energy's first foray into asset energy ownership and long-term asset management, as well as creates a great platform to fuel growth and access to untapped and new markets."
The joint venture is designed to bring RGS Energy into the arena of energy asset ownership, leveraging both organizations' expertise in developing, building and owning energy assets. The partners will jointly manage the available pool of capital, so funds can be more quickly and efficiently deployed to propel growth. Further, it allows RGS Energy to integrate credit qualification and capital sourcing into its core operations. This integrated approach is expected to streamline and improve RGS Energy's already industry leading customer acquisition, engineering, construction and project monitoring capabilities.
"Altus and RGS Energy are working together to solve many of the issues that have prevented large scale and repeatable deployment of affordable solar power," said Lars Norell, managing partner of Altus Power America Management. "This joint venture is expected to allow us to identify attractive solar power projects across the country and efficiently deploy capital throughout the US solar market. We anticipate that this initial deployment of $150 million of capital will be the first of many as we partner with RGS Energy, a leading solar company in the country, to create and enhance value for both organizations."
Kam Mofid, RGS Energy's CEO, said: "This joint venture is an excellent example of how we are broadening the reach and scope of our business activities to accelerate growth, enhance margins, and to better serve our customers. It also provides us the future flexibility to deploy our own capital through the joint venture, at the amount of our choosing, as we extend into the energy asset ownership domain."
The joint venture will offer power purchase agreements and other financial solutions to customers. The parties expect the first fully financed projects to be operational as early as the second quarter of 2014.
RGS Energy's clean energy services are currently available in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Puerto Rico.
About Altus Power America Management, LLC
Altus Power America Management, LLC is an Old Greenwich, Connecticut-based company that invests in, owns and operates clean energy projects. The partners' financial expertise and backgrounds in construction, engineering and design combined with the firm's institutional sponsorship provide an efficient and scalable platform to provide renewable energy and solar solutions to commercial and public sector clients. Visit www.altuspower.com for more information.
About RGS Energy
RGS Energy (Nasdaq:RSOL) is one of the nation's pioneering solar energy companies serving commercial, residential, and utility customers. Beginning with one of the very first photovoltaic panels sold to the public in the U.S. in 1978, the company has installed more than 19,000 solar power systems representing well over 170 megawatts of 100% clean renewable energy. RGS Energy makes it very convenient for customers to save on their energy bill by providing a comprehensive solar solution, from design, financing, permitting and installation to ongoing monitoring, maintenance and support. As one of the nation's largest and most experienced solar power players, the company has 17 offices across the West and the Northeast. For more information, visit RGSEnergy.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rgsenergy and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rgsenergy. RGS Energy is a trade name and RGS Energy makes filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission under its official name "Real Goods Solar, Inc."