Bridging Solar Development And Customer Demand In The U.S. Clean Energy Market – Christopher Smith, CFO, CleanChoice Energy

How is CleanChoice Energy positioned in the U.S. solar PV market across segments?

CleanChoice Energy is uniquely positioned in the U.S. solar PV market because we connect both sides of the value chain — development and customer supply. As the first company in the U.S. to provide “farm-to-table” clean energy, we own solar assets and directly serve hundreds of thousands of customers with 100% clean electricity. This gives us a dual advantage: the resilience of owning long-lived infrastructure and the agility of a trusted consumer-facing energy brand.

Today, our core strength is in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast — regions with high demand for energy but limited supply. By adding clean capacity to those grids, we not only displace fossil generation but also relieve congestion and enhance grid stability.

What differentiates us is how we connect the power plant and the end consumer. We see ourselves not just as an energy provider, but as a bridge between the clean energy transition and the communities that are demanding it.

What is your view on tax credit changes affecting growth plans?

While Federal and state tax incentives have been an important accelerant for clean energy, the macro fundamentals are clear: the U.S. must double or even triple grid capacity over the coming decades, and consumers increasingly demand sustainable solutions. Clean energy is not a temporary policy play — it is the structural growth story of the century.  

Our strategy is to maintain flexibility — ensuring our pipeline can adapt to evolving rules — while pursuing disciplined capital allocation. We’ve navigated cycles before, and our focus is on resilience: supporting clean energy projects  that generate competitive returns . That mindset keeps us on the front foot, even in a shifting regulatory landscape.

Do residential solar bankruptcies pose risks or open doors for CleanChoice Energy?

The recent wave of residential solar bankruptcies underscores the importance of scale, balance sheet strength, and a stable business model like ours. For CleanChoice, this market turbulence creates opportunity. Investors still want clean energy, but they’re wary of volatility. Because we both own the generation assets and have a direct customer relationship, we offer reliability and transparency at a time when trust is paramount.

This is also an inflection point for the industry. Consolidation will separate companies with sustainable economics from those chasing growth at any cost. CleanChoice is positioned in the first camp — disciplined, capital-efficient, and built for the long term. That stability allows us to step in, win market share, and deliver value to customers and investors while others are retrenching.

How are falling solar costs shaping your capital decisions?

The decline in solar module and balance-of-system costs is one of the most transformative forces in our industry. It allows us to deploy capital more efficiently, expand our pipeline, and accelerate returns on invested equity. For CleanChoice, lower costs are not just a margin benefit — they open entirely new markets that were uneconomic just a decade ago. 

We view falling costs as an opportunity to deepen vertical integration: pairing solar with storage, grid services, and customer-facing renewable products. This creates diversified revenue streams and strengthens our resilience against commodity and policy volatility. Every dollar of capital today can build more clean capacity than it did ten years ago — and that is the kind of compounding advantage we intend to capture.

What key financial metrics guide your market strategy?

We track traditional financial metrics — cash flow generation, return on invested capital, and EBITDA growth — but our lens is broader. As a mission-driven business, our strategy is guided by three pillars:

• Capital Efficiency: Every project must meet strict hurdle rates to ensure we are scaling profitably, not just growing megawatts for the sake of growth.
• Resilience of Returns: We evaluate downside scenarios carefully to ensure projects are robust even under stress — whether that’s policy shifts, commodity swings, or grid constraints.
• Value of Customer Relationships: Because we directly serve hundreds of thousands of consumers, we also measure customer lifetime value, retention, and brand trust. Those metrics are as central to long-term value creation as IRR.