Ameresco, Inc. (NYSE:AMRC) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Doran Hole: Yes. I did provide a little bit of a laundry list in the comments. We’ve talked Capuano that’s a big one. We’ve got all these united power battery assets. Those are looking very good as far as completion here in the coming weeks and months. And then the other RNG plants, and kind of by the time you get through all of that, you’re pretty much there. And then in addition to that, of course, we’ve got our typical granular kind of solar assets scattered around the country that we’re doing for customers. So we feel pretty good about that.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Craig Shere of Tuohy Brothers. Your line is now open.

Craig Shere: Hi, good afternoon and thanks for taking questions.

George Sakellaris: Hi, Craig.

Craig Shere: On Ben’s question, did I hear correctly that you’re looking at the discretionary institutional off-take market for RNG? And if that’s correct, are you looking at upwards of 10-year terms and maybe in the ballpark of $20 an end? Could you provide any color, if that’s the case?

Doran Hole: So probably because all the negotiations are private, we can’t really give you any color on where the prices are ending up. I would say that there was a long time when levels like you described were things that we – with the way that we were looking at our returns, what we were getting from using the 50/50 strategy, those weren’t horribly attractive. I think that we’ve seen the rates come up, that a lot of these parties, the voluntary parties are looking to pay and there are some that are really still in the five-year, but non-transportation there’s a number that are in the 10 or even 20-year range. So there is – I think that market’s still trying to find itself and we’re trying to find it. And as long as we feel comfortable with the credit of the counterparty and the nature – and the actual risks in the contract, I wouldn’t be surprised if we go ahead and hit something because the prices are definitely looking better.

Craig Shere: Great. That’s very helpful. And the awarded project backlog was kind of flattish sequentially, but as you mentioned, the actual contracted backlog rose the proportion the firm. So going forward, given your focus, should we anticipate maybe focus on both quality and margin and converting to contracts, should we anticipate maybe a slower awarded growth but steady to improving conversion rates?

Doran Hole: I wouldn’t say necessarily. I would say that one of the things that drives those differences are probably a little bit circumstantial and potentially related to larger projects that might be awarded and contracted in the quarter, intra-quarter, some of the design build stuff that kind of goes through the design phase more quickly. So that’s kind of how I would think about it. I wouldn’t necessarily view that as a particular trend. I think, again, we’re – conversion is important, right? Conversion is important. The pace of conversion is very important. But as far as the long-term kind of view of the company, the way I look at it, it’s total backlog.

Craig Shere: Okay.

George Sakellaris: And don’t forget there is some lumpiness. The one that we can control more is getting the awarded to the executed contract that’s – it depends on the customer, of course, and as well as the awards many times it’s lumpy. And don’t be surprised that you see that picking up later on during the year, primarily a third quarter [indiscernible]

Craig Shere: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes the question-and-answer session. Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

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