Shoals Technologies Group, Inc. and Brookfield Renewable Announce Strategic Partnership to Launch Charging-as-a-Service Solution

PORTLAND, Tenn., April 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shoals Technologies Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SHLS) (the “Company”) and Brookfield Renewable (NYSE: BEP, BEPC; TSX: BEP.UN, BEPC) (“Brookfield”) today announced a strategic partnership to introduce an innovative Charging-as-a-Service (“CaaS”) solution for electric vehicle (“EV”) charging infrastructure. This new product offering eliminates large up-front payments and enables streamlined deployment of charging networks for fleets, retail, multi-unit dwellings, and other large commercial properties.

Currently, EV charging infrastructure requires a large up-front capital investment in charging equipment, electrical infrastructure, and installation. Moreover, traditional installation of EV charging infrastructure with trenching results in months of disruption to site operations and can face significant technical and regulatory hurdles. These challenges have been a barrier to the deployment of EV charging at scale.

Shoals and Brookfield are partnering to introduce a breakthrough CaaS solution to address these issues. Building on previous collaborations between Shoals and Brookfield, this strategic partnership brings together Brookfield’s global scale as one of the largest fully integrated providers of distributed energy and renewable power solutions with Shoals’ industry-leading Fuel by Shoals® product offering, an above-ground EV charging infrastructure solution that reduces installation time and labor requirements while offering charger flexibility. Together, Shoals and Brookfield provide significant commercial, technical, and financing expertise to deliver full-service, end-to-end solutions for customers.

The CaaS solution will focus on C&I and public sector customers, EV solution providers, vehicle manufacturers, fleet operators, and other industry participants, to provide turnkey EV charging solutions with minimal cost and impact to customers. Subscribers will pay a monthly subscription fee over a fixed time period instead of paying costs upfront, freeing up capital for other core priorities. Additionally, the CaaS solution is technology-agnostic with respect to EV charger original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”), and customers will have flexibility to choose EV chargers from various manufacturers that will best fit their needs across their real estate portfolios.

Customers will also have the option to include solar, battery energy storage, and other distributed energy products, drawing from Brookfield’s deep capabilities as a developer, owner, and operator of renewable energy assets. With the depth of our combined offering, each project will have a custom-tailored solution for each customer.

“This collaboration will lower the barrier of entry to the EV charging space by making infrastructure deployments less costly and more efficient,” said Jeff Tolnar, President of Shoals Technologies. “Coupling Brookfield’s financing and operating expertise with Shoals’ leadership in charging infrastructure, our combined CaaS offering will provide a solution for charge point operators looking to replace the necessary up-front capital investments with payments over time, while enabling faster EV charging deployment with minimal site disruption. We look forward to welcoming other EV charger OEMs, O&M, and EPC counterparties into our ecosystem.”

“Brookfield prides itself on partnering with companies like Shoals, a driving force behind the transition to renewable energy and clean electrification,” said Valerie Hannah, Managing Director at Brookfield Asset Management. “Our new collaborative solution is poised to be a game-changer and will accelerate EV charging infrastructure and clean energy deployments across the US, with Brookfield providing all capital needed to fund these projects.”

For additional information about how the new CaaS solution from Shoals and Brookfield can enable streamlined deployment of EV charging infrastructure, please contact CaaS@shoals.com.

About Shoals Technologies Group, Inc.

Shoals Technologies Group, Inc. is a leading provider of electrical balance of system solutions and components for solar, battery storage and electric vehicle charging applications, selling to customers across the United States and internationally. Since its founding in 1996, the Company has introduced innovative technologies and systems solutions that allow its customers to substantially increase installation efficiency and safety while improving system performance and reliability. Shoals Technologies Group, Inc. is a recognized leader in the renewable energy industry whose solutions are deployed on over 20 GW of solar systems globally.

About Brookfield Renewable

Brookfield Renewable operates one of the world’s largest publicly traded platforms for decarbonization technologies. Our diversified portfolio consists of hydroelectric, wind, solar, distributed energy and sustainable technology solutions across five continents. Our installed capacity totals approximately 25,400 megawatts and a development pipeline of approximately 110,000 megawatts of renewable power assets, 8 million metric tonnes per annum (“MMTPA”) of carbon capture and storage, 2 million tons per annum of recycled materials capacity, and 3 million metric million British thermal units (“MMBtu”) annual capacity of renewable natural gas projects.

Brookfield Renewable is the flagship listed renewable power company of Brookfield Asset Management, a leading global alternative asset manager with approximately $800 billion of assets under management.

Forward-Looking Statements

This report contains forward-looking statements that are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. Forward-looking statements include information concerning our possible or assumed future results of operations, business strategies, technology developments, financing and investment plans, dividend policy, competitive position, industry and regulatory environment, potential growth opportunities and the effects of competition. Forward-looking statements include statements that are not historical facts and can be identified by terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” "seek," “should,” “will,” “would” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Some of the key factors that could cause actual results to differ from our expectations include, among others, lower growth than anticipated in demand for solar energy projects and EV charging infrastructure; macroeconomic events, including heightened inflation, rise in interest rates and a potential recession; existing electric utility industry, renewable energy and solar energy policies and regulations, and any subsequent changes, which may present technical, regulatory and economic barriers to the purchase and use of solar energy systems that may significantly reduce demand for our products or harm our ability to compete; changes in the United States trade environment, including the imposition of import tariffs and antidumping and countervailing duties; our failure to, or incurrence of significant costs in order to, obtain, maintain, protect, defend or enforce our intellectual property and other proprietary rights; failure to integrate acquired businesses, and delays, disruptions or quality control problems in our manufacturing operations in part due to vendor concentration; and other risks and uncertainties described in the section entitled "Item 1A. Risk Factors" of our periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Also, forward-looking statements represent our management’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this report. You should read this report with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect.

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