4/18/2022

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Operator

good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and thank you for your patience the conference will begin shortly once again thank you for your patience the conference will begin shortly Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the iSun Energy fourth quarter and full year 2021 financial results. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and we will open the floor for your questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Tyler Barnes, Head of Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

speaker
Tyler Barnes
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you and good afternoon. We are pleased to welcome you to ISUN's conference call where we will discuss financial and operating results for the fourth quarter and full year 2021. Jeffrey Peck, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, will provide an update on the deployment of ISUN's recently completed solar platform and illustrate how the platform both addresses opportunities within the solar marketplace and creates value for shareholders. John Sullivan, Chief Financial Officer, will provide an overview of the fourth quarter and full year 2021 financial results and operating performance. After our prepared remarks today, we will open the lines to address any of your questions. As a reminder, the earnings release and updated investor presentation, which can be found on ISOM's website, include financial disclosures and reconciliations for non-GAAP financial measures that should help you analyze results. Comments and answers to questions during the call will include forward-looking statements that refer to management's expectations for future predictions. These statements are made as of the date of this call, and management is under no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the future. They are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from management's expectations. With that, I will now turn it over to our CEO, Jeff Peck.

speaker
Jeffrey Peck
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Tyler. Good afternoon, everyone. It is my pleasure to be speaking with all of you today, and I'm really excited about the progress ISUN made in 2021 as we execute on our mission to accelerate the adoption of solar energy. Between climate-related and geopolitical events, we are reminded daily of the importance of our work and of our industry, and we have never been more inspired to fulfill our mission or prouder of our progress. 2021 was a transformational year for ISUN, and I'd like to thank our entire team for their commitment, dedication, and focus on executing on our strategies. Despite COVID-related industry headwinds, we delivered on our promises. Specifically, we executed on our growth strategy. We transformed ISUN into a solar company uniquely capable of accelerating the adoption of clean energy across all industry segments. We did this by combining the strength of our traditional CNI business with an innovative solar carport and EV infrastructure company, then adding a world-class team providing solar development design and engineering services to support utility-scale project origination and EPC. And finally, adding a mission-driven residential solar company to ISON's now full suite of services. While building a solar company ready to meet and accelerate the demand of the solar industry in each segment, we remain focused on our promise to grow revenues. In 2021, ISON is able to exceed our guidance by more than doubling our 2020 revenues. We also continue to serve our customers in growing our backlog. As we closed out 2021, we accumulated a backlog of contracted projects and generated new demand that supports our 2022 guidance and beyond. Additionally, our newly acquired solar development and engineering team has contracted with several solar asset owners to develop and engineer solar projects. In just six months, we have built a pipeline of 550 megawatts of projects that we are moving through the development process and towards construction. These projects range in size from 500 kilowatts to over 100 megawatts. As these projects achieve notice to proceed, they will be added to our EPC backlog. This helps deliver on our promise to grow our backlog, expand geographically, as well as providing ISUN opportunities for asset ownership. With our expansion of the EV infrastructure, we delivered on our promise to accelerate the adoption of EVs. I believe when we look back, 2021 will be the year when the transition to electric vehicles took hold. The debate is over. The electrification of our auto fleet is upon us. The need to expand the infrastructure and improve the customer experience is happening now. In Q4 2021, ISM signed a multi-year contract to design and provide 1,780 solar carports throughout the United States. This transition to electric vehicles will accelerate residential and commercial adoption of solar energy. As consumers transition to electric vehicles, they will often charge their vehicles at home or work. residential and commercial customers will see their election bills dramatically increase. This will drive demand in both areas as consumers look to lower and future-proof against rising electricity rates. Our residential and small commercial brand, Suncommon, has seen increasing customer demand, which we believe will accelerate in the coming years. Suncommon was built to scale with their digital marketing, low customer acquisition costs, and people-first customer service. Suncom will help us meet and accelerate the growing demand of residential and commercial customers. Another quality of Suncom that we admired was their status as a B Corp and their commitment to values-driven business practices. With the help of their team, ISUN has engaged with our stakeholders to begin the process of formalizing our values in a comprehensive ESG policy. ISUN has made substantial progress throughout 2021 in executing on our growth strategy through acquisitions. During the acquisition process, we placed a premium on leaders that were excellent operators and who shared our values and commitment to serving the communities in which we operate. I'd like to take a moment and recognize the leadership team we've assembled. We are excited to welcome Daniel Deuce, president of ISM Utility, and James Moore, president of ISM Residential, to the team. Daniel previously led the U.S. renewables business for the $100 billion Adani Group, the largest solar company in the world in terms of operating and contracting solar assets. James co-founded Suncommon, serving as co-president, growing Suncommon to one of the largest residential solar companies in the Northeast. We appreciate the opportunity to learn from their years of experience, and together with Executive Vice President of Commercial and Industrial Kit Myrick, our team will have an unparalleled wealth of experience in solar and the leadership required to execute on the solar industry's generational opportunity. The fourth quarter of 2021 provided our first opportunity to see our team work together in a collaborative manner, and we are thrilled with the results. We are excited to grow these synergies and drive efficiencies through our development, design, and engineering services, our supply chain, and our proven installation expertise to new and existing customers, and to see what we can accomplish with our platform in a full calendar year. ISO's mission is to accelerate the adoption of proven technological innovations capable of improving lives. This has been our approach to the business for the last 50 years, from the clean rooms that enabled silicon chip production to the telecommunication installation services that connected industries and consumers to the Internet. ISO has enabled the most important technological transformations of the last century. For all of the innovations we've helped advance, none have provided as much of an opportunity to make more meaningful impact than the current iteration of our mission. helping accelerate the nation's adoption of solar energy. This is a generational opportunity. Decarbonization and EV adoption are projected to drive electricity demand. Current projections by the U.S. Department of Energy suggest that solar deployment will shoulder a significant share of this increase in demand. In 2021, solar served between 3 and 4 percent of U.S. electricity demand And even by most conservative estimates, the U.S. Department of Energy projects that this figure will increase to 37 to 42 percent by 2035, an increase of over 1100 percent. ISUN is uniquely positioned to meet this demand as it arises in each segment of the solar energy industry. Over the last year, ISUN has assembled a platform capable of addressing this generational opportunity presented by decarbonization and EV adoption. Now that it is complete, ISM can serve each segment of the solar marketplace, residential, commercial, industrial, and utility, with a comprehensive suite of services encompassing each stage of the solar development process. By serving each segment, ISM's combination of skills will drive and grow our backlog, generate new demand, and create efficiencies throughout the organization. As I stated earlier, our development and engineering team works directly with customers who want to invest in solar assets. On a fee-for-service basis, we guide them through the entire development process, from land origination and control, rapidly diligence project sites, vetting technical feasibilities, executing internal engineering packages, and negotiating PPAs, and running the finance process. This creates immediate development services revenues and provides ISUN with EPC rights as projects achieve notice to proceed, while maximizing the value of the solar asset for our customers. Being involved throughout the entire process provides us with a differentiating advantage over our competition. Another example of driving efficiency is our combination of skill sets. Suncom's digital marketing has created low customer acquisition costs. We often come across residential and commercial customers who want renewable solar energy but are unable to have solar where they live or work. ISUN, with our combined internal skills, can now convert that lost customer to a community solar customer. Our development and engineering team, working closely with solar asset owners, can develop community solar projects, Suncom can provide those customers to the community solar asset, and our industrial group will provide the EPC work. The buying power created by our utility group will assist by providing internal savings on the equipment and materials to construct this asset. Additionally, our participation early and throughout the process will help us more efficiently manage the labor needs of the project. As our team works collectively and collaboratively we can drive down the total cost of the solar assets, protect our margin, and accelerate the transition to solar energy. As we know, it isn't always sunny in the solar industry. And while the overall macro opportunity remains strong, there are some headwinds and challenges for the industry. Recently, the US Department of Commerce initiated an investigation for circumvention tariffs on solar products from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. This, in addition to commodity inflation, supply chain constraints, and rising interest rates, has created some uncertainty in the industry. These headwinds are the exact reason we built ISUN as a multi-segment, full-service solar company. The combination of skills and services will allow us to drag total project costs down and to serve the segment with the most market demand. 2022 marks ISUN's 50th year of business. In that time, we have been through many industry and economic headwinds. We believe these capabilities afford us a unique position in the marketplace and represent a tremendous opportunity for shareholders. We are monitoring each of these developments closely and will continue to evaluate the impacts they will have on each of our divisions in our forecast for 2022. With that, I'd like to hand things over to our CFO, John Sullivan. As John will illustrate, we're encouraged by the initial operating performance of our platform and are excited to deploy these capabilities across a full calendar year. John?

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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