Greenskies Becomes First Solar Developer to Achieve Stem’s Premier Partner Status with Stem University

Stem, Inc.
August 11, 2020

MILLBRAE, Calif. and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stem, Inc., the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven energy storage services, today announced that Greenskies Clean Energy, a leading developer of commercial and industrial (C&I) solar-power facilities, is the first company to achieve Premier Partner status in the Stem Partner Program with a required minimum 5MWh of fulfilled projects with Stem and as graduates of Stem University. To attain this goal, Greenskies’ team fully completed the three certification tracks - sales, sales analytics, and deployment - to sell, install, and manage energy storage systems with Stem.

Stem certifications give Greenskies an advantage in competitive bid processes, enabling the company to win new projects such as a multisite behind the meter (BTM) project in Southern California providing backup power and utility bill optimization, and both BTM and front of the meter (FTM) projects with a local electric cooperative on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

"Greenskies is a prime example of how Stem successfully collaborates with partners and shares the experience we have gained during the past decade working with solar developers," said John E. Carrington, CEO of Stem. "By participating in Stem University and our Partner Program, Greenskies quickly built deep expertise in designing and deploying solar-plus-storage solutions that empowers it to bring these innovative solutions to customers ranging from major corporations to local communities."

"Our partnership with Stem enables us to offer compelling solar-plus-storage solutions," said Stanley Chin, CEO and vice chairman of Greenskies. "Not only are our customers saving on their electricity bills, but we can also substantially reduce their demand charges and provide backup power when the grid goes down."

Reaping Benefits from the Stem Partner Program
Completing its Stem University certifications has given Greenskies a significant advantage in competitive bids, enabling it to win BTM and FTM projects on both the West and East coasts. Projects totaling nearly 10,000 kWh / 5,000 kW are currently underway in California and Massachusetts.

"Stem's Partner Program and its wide variety of solutions have been gamechangers in our ability to develop solar-plus-storage," said Steve Liu, vice president of Engineering and Procurement for Greenskies. "As a developer who works on very tight deadlines, having the wealth of information and resources from Stem has been a key differentiator. And through Stem University, we easily enabled a growing number of our staff to understand the complexities of solar-plus-storage."

Bicoastal Deployments
In the Greater Los Angeles area, Greenskies and Stem are developing an 8,000kWh / 4,000kW commercial BTM project comprised of five systems in four fulfillment centers operated by a major retailer. Greenskies was initially tasked to integrate storage with solar already installed on the buildings. This would enable the customer to optimize its utility bill by shifting its time of solar energy use to the evenings when electricity from the grid is more expensive. When the customer added an additional requirement for backup capabilities late in the project, Greenskies was able to quickly integrate Stem for backup power, replacing diesel generators in one of the systems.

On Martha’s Vineyard in the Town of Oak Bluffs, Mass., Greenskies and Stem are deploying both FTM and BTM projects in conjunction with the Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative Inc. (CVEC). The 1040 kWh / 500kW FTM project, located at the Oak Bluffs Landfill, will leverage Athena^TM, Stem's industry-leading AI platform, to comply with requirements of the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) Program. In addition, Athena will enable the project to participate in wholesale markets managed by Independent System Operator-New England (ISO-NE). The BTM project is a 232kWh / 58kW deployment at Oak Bluffs Elementary School which also features backup capabilities for a fast, automatic transition to battery power when the grid goes down.

"CVEC is a unique energy cooperative that is doubling its existing 34 megawatts of renewable energy for its members on and off the Cape and Islands,” said Liz Argo, executive director of CVEC. “With the addition of battery storage to accompany CVEC's ramping up of renewables, CVEC is providing a resilience component, as well as adding energy cost savings to an area particularly hard hit by climate change and the challenges of COVID-19."

About Greenskies
Clean Focus and Greenskies develop, finance, construct, own, and operate clean, renewable-energy projects in the United States. From beginning to end – origination through construction and then lifetime operation – customers work with a single delivery team. Greenskies offers integrated solar and battery-storage solutions to C&I, municipal, and utility customers, while Clean Focus provides capital and owns the systems. Both Clean Focus and Greenskies were founded in 2009, and they joined JLC Infrastructure as wholly-owned subsidiaries in 2019. Together Clean Focus and Greenskies have constructed and operate over 230 MW of C&I solar projects throughout the country. The combined company was Ranked #1 by Solar Power World in 2019 for cumulative commercial installations. For more information, visit www.greenskies.com.

About Stem, Inc.
Stem provides solutions that address the challenges of today’s dynamic energy market. By combining advanced energy storage solutions with Athena™ AI, a world-class artificial intelligence (AI)-powered analytics platform, Stem enables customers and partners to optimize energy use by automatically switching between battery power, onsite generation and grid power. Stem’s solutions help enterprise customers benefit from clean, adaptive energy infrastructure and achieve a wide variety of goals, including expense reduction, resilience, sustainability, environmental and corporate responsibility and innovation. Stem also offers full support for solar partners interested in adding storage to standalone, community or commercial solar projects – both behind and in front of the meter.

Headquartered in Millbrae, Calif., Stem is directly funded by a consortium of leading investors including Activate Capital, Angeleno Group, BNP Paribas, Constellation Technology Ventures, Iberdrola (Inversiones Financieras Perseo), GE Ventures, Magnesium Capital, Mithril Capital Management, Mitsui & Co. LTD., Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, RWE Supply & Trading, Temasek and Total Energy Ventures. For more information, visit www.stem.com.

Media Contacts
Laurie Gibson
Kickstart Consulting for Stem
+1 (650) 815-1438
lgibson@kickstartconsulting.com

Jeff Hintzke
Greenskies Clean Energy / Clean Focus
+1 (408)-419-4708
jeff.hintzke@cleanfocus.us