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Solar Alliance Appoints New CEO and Provides Corporate Update

February 21st, 2019 | by Anne Brock

Vancouver, Canada, and Knoxville, Tennessee, February 21th, 2019 – Solar Alliance Energy Inc. (‘Solar Alliance’) or (the ‘Company’) (TSX-V: SOLR) is pleased to announce the promotion of Myke Clark to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.  Mr. Clark has also been appointed to the Company’s board of directors and has been with the Company as its Chief Operating Officer since 2015.   Jason Bak will continue as non-executive Chair and as a director, along with Anton Shihoff and Ken Stadlin. David Lamont has resigned from the board to pursue other opportunities.  The Company thanks Mr. Lamont for his years of support, service, diligence and strategic guidance as it developed over $1 billion of renewable assets that are currently operational.
“As a Founder & CEO of this Company it has been my great honour to work alongside numerous professionals as we have developed a number of world class renewable assets. In the last few years we have progressed from seeing returns from development to a focus on growth of revenue and importantly profit.  The appointment of Mr. Clark is the outcome of an orderly succession process that has a key goal – profitability. I look forward to supporting Mr. Clark from my role as Chairman,” states Bak.
Mr. Clark has more than 20 years of experience in media, public affairs, marketing and operations with a variety of public and private companies, most recently as the Chief Operating Officer of Solar Alliance. Prior to joining Solar Alliance in 2015, Mr. Clark was a senior public affairs, branding and strategic communications consultant in the natural resource sector, SVP Business Development for Finavera Wind Energy and a journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Mr. Clark holds an MBA from Simon Fraser University.
“I am excited to be taking on the role of CEO at Solar Alliance and look forward to working with our exceptional team of renewable energy professionals to create a stable, profitable business that generates strong returns for shareholders,” said Mr. Clark. “We have a strong team that has developed a growing pipeline of commercial solar projects along with an exciting new residential solar product – SunBox – that has the potential to transform the solar industry. I am looking forward to growing Solar Alliance and building on the work done to date. I also look forward to enhancing our investor relations program to ensure our operational successes are recognized in the capital markets,” concluded Clark.
Corporate Update
The Company has seen significant change in its shareholder base over the last year with a high net worth shareholder acquiring over 50% of the Company’s stock.  This shareholder has taken a position in the Company to support significant growth via the execution of a clearly defined plan.
The Company’s plans for 2019 will build on the substantial ground work laid in 2018. In 2018, we experienced a ten-fold increase in commercial solar installations over the previous year and entered into agreements with a Fortune Global 500 company in the southeast US and a large property developer in California. These agreements total almost 3 megawatts (“MW”) of solar projects and set the stage for future large-scale projects. We have also enhanced our sales process for targeting small to mid-sized commercial projects. Finally, we launched “SunBox”, a new product offering that provides a simple, efficient solar system specifically designed for architects, new home builders and their customers. These three business units – large scale commercial, mid-sized commercial and SunBox – form the basis of Solar Alliance’s long-term strategy. Each has a different revenue and growth profile that, when combined, have the potential to deliver significant long-term value for Solar Alliance shareholders.
The goal of Solar Alliance has always been simple: create a better world through the adoption of renewable energy technologies that allow individuals and businesses to take control of their electricity use. Invest in your home or business while being part of the climate change solution. The path from vision to implementation and profitability, however, is rarely a straight line. While the overall solar industry is growing, that growth has often come at the expense of profitability for many companies. The key is determining where the value lies and how to take advantage as a company. And do it all at scale while maintaining profitability. We see long term, sustained growth occurring in the commercial solar market and the new home residential solar market. And that’s why our resources are focused on those areas.
Large scale commercial. During 2018 we signed two large scale commercial projects: a 2.4 MW project for a Fortune Global 500 company in the Southeast U.S and 518 kW project in Los Angeles for the Onni Group, a large property developer. The 2.4 MW project is nearing completion. For commercial reasons, the identity of the Fortune Global 500 customer is not being released until the project’s completion, but our goal is to leverage this project across a large portfolio of facilities owned by the client. The Los Angeles project is expected to begin construction this month. These larger projects can drive significant revenue for the Company and we are targeting the signing of 2-3 new large-scale projects in 2019. The sales cycle for these projects is long, so it is also important to focus on mid-sized projects that deliver faster revenue.
Mid-sized commercial. Our team completed the installation of several commercial solar projects ranging in size from 30 kW to 150 kW. Permitting, financing and construction of these mid-sized projects is simpler than with large-scale projects, allowing for faster cycle times and more consistent cashflow. Our goal is to enhance our sales team in an effort to target a 50% increase in project sales in this business line. The combination of large-scale and mid-sized commercial solar projects has contributed to a record ten-fold year over year increase in Solar Alliance’s pipeline of commercial solar projects.

Commercial Solar Installations
Year Installed (kW) Work in Process (kW) Total (kW)
2017 387 387
2018 289 3,134* 3,423 (3.4 MW)


*2.4 MW of work in process projects were substantially completed by year end, 2018 and will reach final completion in Q1, 2019
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SunBox. The traditional sales model of utilizing door to door canvass teams to generate leads for individual solar system sales is an expensive way to do business and for many solar companies it doesn’t make economic sense. The residential solar industry is inundated with outdated sales techniques that drive customers away instead of bringing them on board. That’s why we decided to invest the time and resources in developing a new model that we believe will drive residential solar in the coming years. Over the last year we have developed a comprehensive product offering called SunBox that has the potential to revolutionize the residential solar sales model. Solar Alliance is selectively partnering with architects, developers and homebuilders that will integrate this solar offering into their existing home designs for new construction, with the primary customer base consisting of developers building large, multi-home communities​. It took time to develop the SunBox business plan, product components and finalize supply chain logistics. In the long run, we believe this investment of time and resources will reap significant benefits.
Solar Alliance will initially offer SunBox in Tennessee, followed by entry into the North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and California markets. The addressable market is significant, and California has already mandated all new homes are required to have solar starting in 2020. The table below outlines the number of new single-family home permits applied for in each of these states, representing a rough estimate of the potential market Solar Alliance is targeting. It also illustrates the potential revenue available if 1% of the addressable market was captured.

State New Home Permits (2017) Potential revenue from 1% of Addressable Market
Tennessee 27,119 $6,779,750
North Carolina 49,366 $12,341,500
South Carolina 28,851 $7,212,750
Georgia 40,311 $10,077,750
Kentucky 7,967 $1,991,750
California 57,132 $14,283,000
Total 2017 New Home Permits 210,746 $52,686,500


Corporate Outlook.
According to the latest Renewable Energy Industry Outlook from Deloitte, the fundamental drivers of solar industry growth are poised to continue in 2019, supported by three trends coming into sharper focus that are likely to shape renewable growth in the coming year. Those trends include emerging policies that support renewable growth, expanding investor interest in the sector, and advancing technologies that boost solar energy’s value to the grid, asset owners, and customers. The Deloitte report notes that increasing customer demand for renewable energy across almost all market segments continues to expand opportunities. While the current US administration is not focused on decarbonization, states, cities, communities, and businesses with increasingly ambitious sustainability goals are driving renewable growth.
The solar industry remains strong. But for Solar Alliance shareholders, how does that translate into shareholder value? The Company had operational success in 2018, but our share price hasn’t kept pace with that operational success. Our goal is to increase our visibility in the coming year to ensure the market is aware of the progress we’ve made and the exciting developments still to come. More importantly, we believe the fundamental improvements we’ve made to our business will increase shareholder value. Those improvements have resulted in us setting the following goals for 2019:

  1. Sign 2-3 large scale commercial projects.
  2. Increase our commercial sales team to realize a 50% increase in sales of small- to mid-sized commercial solar projects.
  3. Fully launched SunBox in the following markets: Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky.

Achieving these goals in 2019 would result in a material increase in revenue. Long term, we are also pursuing options for Solar Alliance ownership of solar systems to ensure recurring revenue. The marketplace has seen the issuance of green bonds to support company ownership and that is an option is we are looking closely at. Extracting the full value from solar system sales, including ownership and recurring revenue, are goals Solar Alliance is committed to.
Solar Alliance sees long term, sustained growth occurring in the commercial solar market and the new home residential solar market. The Company has focused its resources on three business units: large scale commercial, mid-sized commercial and SunBox. It’s been a challenging journey to reach this point but we are now in a position for sustainable success.
Myke Clark, CEO
About Solar Alliance Energy Inc. (www.solaralliance.com) 
Solar Alliance is an international energy solutions provider focused on residential, commercial and industrial solar installations. The Company operates in California, Tennessee, North/South Carolina and Kentucky and has an expanding pipeline of solar projects.  Since it was founded in 2003, the Company has developed $1 billion of wind and solar projects that provide enough electricity to power 150,000 homes. Our passion is improving life through ingenuity, simplicity and freedom of choice. Solar Alliance reduces or eliminates customers’ vulnerability to rising energy costs, offers an environmentally-friendly source of electricity generation, and provides affordable, turnkey clean energy solutions.
Statements in this news release, other than purely historical information, including statements relating to the Company’s future plans and objectives or expected results, constitute Forward-looking statements. The words “would”, “will”, “expected” and “estimated” or other similar words and phrases are intended to identify forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different than those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include but are not limited to: uncertainties related to the ability to raise sufficient capital, changes in economic conditions or financial markets, litigation, legislative or other judicial, regulatory and political competitive developments and technological or operational difficulties. Consequently, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.
“Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.”