Investor FAQs

Altus currently generates revenue in several ways:

We sell solar energy (in the form of electricity measured in kilowatt hours) to our customers from solar systems that we own and operate on roofs, in parking lots and on ground-mounted sites across the country. We generate revenue from energy storage systems (large batteries) that we own and operate and that deliver resiliency benefits, load-shifting and power circuit stability to our customers, and we make revenue from generating and selling renewable energy credits.

We typically sign contracts with terms of 20 years or longer to sell power from assets that Altus builds, owns, and operates. Our company was started over a decade ago and we still service our original customers under the same agreements they signed at inception.

Our assets are generally between 1 and 10 megawatts in size and are either roof-mounted on commercial or industrial-scale buildings, on carports in big parking lots or ground-mounted – often next to or immediately above where our clients are located and where they consume electricity. We’re currently delivering clean electricity and/or energy storage benefits to clients in 22 states and we’re working to expand into additional states.

We typically lease the rooftop from the building owner and sign a power purchase agreement with the tenant who will consume the power from the asset that we build and operate.

A PPA is a contract where Altus delivers solar energy directly into a customer’s electrical circuit, behind its electricity meter. Under an NMCA, Altus produces clean energy for the benefit of a customer, but delivers it into the local utility grid. The local utility then credits the customer for each kilowatt hour that Altus delivers and the credit appears on the customer’s monthly utility bill. Both types of contracts are long-term and can have either fixed or variable rates depending on the customer’s needs. The primary advantage of an NMCA is that customers don’t need to be located at our solar array to benefit from the clean energy produced.

Our assets primarily serve commercial, industrial and municipal customers but we also have a growing residential segment of customers in our community solar program. See Community Solar below for additional details.

Our business is to underwrite, build, own and operate assets that meet our return threshold and that generate cash which can be reinvested into additional opportunities, with new and existing clients. We also believe there is great potential to add additional revenue streams to existing client engagements, like asset repowering, battery storage and electric vehicle (EV) & commercial fleet charging.

C&I stands for Commercial & Industrial and includes clean energy generation, energy storage and delivery (into buildings, communities and vehicles)

C&I Solar has economies of scale-benefits when compared to residential solar systems, both in the acquisition of customers and in the construction of our solar generation and energy storage systems.

Utility-scale solar involves lengthy development processes and traditionally sells the energy produced into the grid and utilities at wholesale prices. C&I Solar is characterized by relatively shorter development processes – building solar and energy storage on and near existing buildings requires less permitting. Additionally, Altus mostly sells energy at a discount to retail prices.

WoodMac¹ estimates the commercial-scale addressable market at 145,000 megawatts with annual installation forecast currently between 2,000 and 3,000 megawatts. Altus Power is the only publicly traded independent C&I solar plus storage company.

Community solar provides a way for residential customers to purchase portions of the clean energy generated by our C&I-scale solar arrays without having to install solar modules on their roofs. Customers who subscribe are allocated a portion of the generation from our solar arrays and receive a credit on their local utility bill for the quantity purchased. Unlike residential solar, which usually requires a roof or a yard for placement of solar modules, community solar allows multifamily-housing inhabitants and tenants to participate in the benefits of clean electricity.

Community solar expands the reach of our projects into the residential customer class while permitting us to focus on building large solar arrays on commercial and industrial rooftops, in parking lots and occasionally, on ground lots. This increases our total addressable market and we’re very encouraged with the rapid growth of the community solar segment.

We currently serve over 5,000 community customers and have solar arrays in construction that we expect will serve thousands more. Community solar is available in 7 states² and Altus looks forward to seeing it introduced in more states across the country.

Blackstone has been a capital provider and sponsor of Altus since 2014 and currently owns approximately 13%³ of our Class A common shares. Blackstone has been an impactful partner to Altus and has helped shape our company in several ways, from launching the first ever rated senior funding facility for C&I solar assets to providing support to our decision making and reporting structures and by serving on our Board. Blackstone is also the largest owner of commercial real estate globally and is working closely with Altus to meet its ESG goals and meet carbon reduction commitments.

CBRE is the largest manager of commercial real estate in the world and can provide direct access to clients and deal flow for Altus. CBRE is also the largest commercial real estate developer in the US and owns significant real estate through its investment management business. CBRE is committed to reducing carbon emissions at its client properties for the benefit of all its stakeholders. CBRE chose to sponsor Altus Power to help achieve this goal. CBRE owns approximately 16%⁴ of Class A common shares and has a seat on our Board.

Both Blackstone and CBRE have access to cost-efficient sourcing of goods and services due to their scale, which gives Altus access to preferred pricing. Altus has also begun to leverage CBRE’s development and project management expertise on potential solar, storage and electric vehicle charging projects serving customers nationally.

Approximately 50% of the pipeline consists of development and new construction assets. This portion of our pipeline includes client engagements from channel partners that are, in some instances, fully developed and ready for immediate construction. Others are opportunities that come either from channel partners or from our relationships with CBRE and Blackstone, where Altus will lead the development and construction process. Finally, we see additional asset opportunities from existing customers who wish to grow the amount of solar energy they purchase or add energy storage or EV charging.

Approximately 50% of our pipeline consists of operating assets, either single assets or smaller batches of several assets and larger portfolio acquisition opportunities that we believe represents potentially strategically significant additions of clients and assets to Altus.⁵

A client engagement with an asset originated by one of our channel partners, where the development is completed and only construction remains has typically taken 6 to 9 months to turn into operation after we have an agreement on terms. Client engagements and assets where Altus initiates development, such as those with a lead from CBRE or Blackstone, have historically taken 12 to 15 months from agreed terms to commercial operation. In the current environment, these timelines have been extended by between 3 to 6 months due to extensions required for permitting, interconnection delays and supply chain issues.

Altus has executed on acquisitions of portfolios of clients and assets in C&I solar plus storage and community solar. In addition to harvesting operating synergies, we believe our team’s significant transactional experience, structuring creativity and efficient cost of capital position us to produce solid returns with the added benefit of a shorter runway to generating cash flow.