Ameresco (AMRC) Q2 2026 earnings call transcript

Thank you, Tina, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for today's call. Our speakers on the call today will be George Saccolaris, Ameresco's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nicole Bulgarino, Co-President of Ameresco, and Mark Chiplock, Chief Financial Officer. In addition, Josh Barabo, our Chief Investment Officer, will also be available during Q&A to help answer questions.

Before I turn the call over to George, I would like to make a brief statement regarding forward-looking remarks. Today's earnings materials contain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our expectations. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Please refer to today's earnings materials, the safe harbor language on slide two of our supplemental information, and our SEC filings for a discussion of the major risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those in our forward-looking statements.

In addition, we use several non-GAAP measures when presenting our financial results. We have included the reconciliations of these measures and additional information in our supplemental slides that were posted to our website. Please note that all comparisons that we will be discussing today are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted. I will now turn the call over to George. George?

Thank you, Leila, and good afternoon, everyone. Q2 was a transformational quarter for Ameresco, highlighted by exceptional execution and strong financial performance. First, we had a record of $1.8 billion of new awards, driven by $1.2 billion for data centers and $600 million for our other key markets.

Second, we closed our new Janix joint venture with HACI, providing us with significant external capital to accelerate growth in all of our business lines. And we announced our first successful delivery of RNG into the European compliance markets.

Third, we repositioned Ameresco into two core market pillars, and we are releasing a new, rebranded corporate identity to reflect the updated position. And finally, we successfully brought online the 250-megawatt NAPONI battery energy storage system, one of the largest energy storage projects in Canada. And we energized the 560 megawatt solar project in Greece, one of the largest projects in Europe.

Many of you have been anticipating updates on our involvement in the data center market. There is a growing demand for reliable power infrastructure and increasingly favorable policy for on-site power infrastructure, encouraging hyperscale customers to secure dedicated on-site power solutions. Combined with Ameresco's integrated capabilities, we are well positioned to deliver solutions that provide speed, reliability, and the energy independence that these customers need. During the Cora, several opportunities advanced to the point where they met our criteria for inclusion in our awarded backlog.

Importantly, the projects we added to our backlog represent only a portion of our broader pipeline. As we continue to advance additional data center opportunities, we will remain highly selective in our partnerships and disciplined in our approach. We expect the amount of backlog added from these opportunities to increase as development progresses, project scopes are finalized, and they convert to contracted backlog. As you will see in our updated corporate presentation, the company is well positioned to flourish in the current market environment. With our recent promotions of Nicole Polgarino and Lou Maltesos to co-presidents, we have positioned the company to address two core market pillars, power infrastructure and building a public infrastructure. This strategic positioning reinforces Ameresco's standing as one of the world's leading energy infrastructure companies, focused on delivering integrated solutions to provide reliable power and modernized infrastructure.

With a powerful combination of market catalysts and a robust pipeline of opportunities, we are confident in our ability to drive exceptional long-term profitable growth. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Nicole to provide some additional details about the exciting data center activities, as well as other notable project wins and business opportunities. Nicole?

Thank you, George, and good afternoon, everyone. As George highlighted, Ameresco made significant progress with our power infrastructure business during the quarter. The backlog additions we announced today are the results of months of working to secure, develop, and advance opportunities with leading partners across the data center ecosystem. Our strategy remains highly focused and selective, partnering with experienced developers, operators, hyperscalers, and capital providers, while concentrating exclusively on on-site power data solutions.

This landscape is dynamic and often requires persistence and flexibility with solutions due to permitting, gas supply, and specific tenant needs. This is where Ameresco's decades of experience developing, delivering, owning, and operating critical energy infrastructure provides us with a clear competitive advantage. During this quarter, we added three new data center projects to our awarded backlog, bringing our total to five data center projects in addition to the Lelore data center in our energy assets portfolio. These projects further expand our presence in the nation's most active data center markets, adding both Texas and Arizona to our existing footprint of data center projects. Collectively, they will represent more than one gigawatt of power generation and showcase the breadth of Ameresco's capabilities.

The solutions we are providing include a combination of reciprocating engines, gas turbines, fuel cells, battery energy storage systems, and integrated microgrids designed to deliver the reliability required by today's most demanding data center customers. These awarded projects also only represent a portion of the opportunities we are actively developing. We continue to see exceptional demand for on-site power solutions and are encouraged by both the scale and the quality of our growing pipeline. We are engaged with many of the industry's leading data center partners, and we believe our differentiated capabilities position us extremely well to capitalize on the significant opportunities ahead. We look forward to sharing additional developments as we continue to convert this momentum into backlog and long-term profitable growth.

While the data center activity was certainly a highlight of the quarter, it is also important to note that our momentum extends well beyond this market. We also secured a significant amount of new project awards across a broad range of geographies, customers, and in-markets, underscoring the strength and diversity of our business. These wins reflect continued demand for Ameresco's comprehensive energy infrastructure solutions and demonstrate our ability to capitalize on the opportunities across multiple verticals while maintaining a balanced and resilient growth profile. I will now turn the call over to Mark to cover our strong Q2 financial performance. Mark.

Thank you, Nicole, and good afternoon, everyone. Q2 was a strong quarter across the board. We delivered revenue of $515 million and made meaningful progress on the priorities that matter most, executing well, expanding our growth visibility through record awards, and strengthening our capital position to support the opportunities ahead. Q2 demonstrated the strength of our current operating model and the increasing visibility we are building as we work to execute the next phase of our growth strategy. Our total revenues grew by 9 while project revenue increased 6 to million This reflects solid execution across our core project business with strength in federal and North America and continued strong performance from our European JV This was not just a strong quarter financially.

It was also an outstanding business development quarter. As George highlighted, awarded project backlog increased 65% to a record level of $4.4 billion, increasing our total project backlog by 32% to $6.7 billion. As always, the timing and extent of conversion of our backlog will depend on commercial, permitting, procurement, financing, and execution milestones. This backlog provides tremendous long-term visibility as we expect to convert over the next three to four years. Q2 energy asset revenue was a clear highlight, increasing 21% to $76 million as we continue to expand the operating portfolio. During the quarter, we placed an additional 32 megawatts into operation. Our operating energy asset base now stands at 822 megawatts, with another 513 megawatts in development or construction.

These figures reflect Ameresco's 70% ownership interest in the Neogenics JV. O&M also had a very strong quarter, with revenue up 29%. This remains an important part of the model for us, because it builds naturally from successful project execution and creates long-term recurring revenue. We continue to see solid growth in our third-party O&M business, which expands the opportunity set beyond just Ameresco-executed projects. We now provide service for over 2.5 gigawatts of third-party solar and battery storage.

With long-term O&M backlog now exceeding $1.5 billion, this business continues to provide strong visibility, recurring revenue, and durability across cycles. Gross margin was 17.7%, a meaningful improvement both sequentially and year-over-year, reflecting a favorable business mix and strong execution. Net income attributable to common shareholders was $9.7 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, while non-GAAP EPS was $0.20. Adjusted EBITDA increased 12% to $62.8 million, outpacing revenue growth and reflecting strong operating execution, improved business mix, and the continued expansion of our higher margin recurring businesses.

EPS reflected higher depreciation and interest expense associated with the continued growth in our energy asset portfolio, along with a lower tax benefit and the non-controlling interest impact from the Neogenics transaction.

Turning to our balance sheet, unrestricted cash increased to $138 million, with total corporate debt of $385 million. Our corporate leverage was 3.2 times, comfortably below our 3.5 times covenant. We also strengthened our capital position in Q2, securing $471 million of new financing commitments, including the $400 million related to the Neogenics transaction. That capital gives us added flexibility to fund growth, support our working capital needs, and continue scaling the energy assets portfolio in a disciplined way. Adjusted cash from operations was impacted in Q2 by the timing of project execution, billings, and collections. The strong revenue quarter included significant work performed ahead of contractual billing milestones, resulting in more cash being temporarily absorbed in working capital. Cash conversion remains a key priority for the second half.

Given our strong first-half performance, the visibility provided by our backlog, and the financing progress achieved in Q2, we remain confident in our 2026 outlook. As a result, we are reaffirming our full-year guidance across all metrics and increasing our non-GAAP EPS guidance. We are increasing our non-GAAP EPS guidance range to be $1.15 to $1.35, as we now expect a tax benefit rate in the range of 25% to 40%. The additional expected tax benefit is supported by our planned transition to a new accounting policy for transferable tax credits in the second half of the year. This methodology better aligns earnings recognition with the period in which the investment tax credits are generated, rather than allocating the benefit over the life of the related assets.

Prior period results will be recast to enhance comparability once we make this change. Looking ahead, we expect the second half to follow our normal seasonal cadence, with activity weighted somewhat more towards Q4, supported by continued project execution, backlog conversion, and disciplined cost management. Now I'd like to turn the call back to George for closing comments.

Thank you, Mark. This is a transformative time for Ameresco as we continue to execute our growth strategy, positioning ourselves in some of the fastest growing and most attractive energy infrastructure markets. Our twin market pillars of power infrastructure and built-in and public infrastructure not only continue to drive our growth, but also provide greater diversification of the company's customers and solutions. And our decades of experience delivering reliable on-site power solutions uniquely positioned us to capitalize on the significant opportunities ahead.

We look forward to connecting with many of you at upcoming meetings and conferences. In closing, I want to once again thank our employees, customers, and staff holders for their continued support and confidence in Ameresco. Operator, we would like to open the call to questions now.

Once again, to ask a question, simply press star 1 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, we do ask that you limit questions to one and one follow-up, then return to the queue if you have further questions.

Thank you. But regarding those wins, how are project delivery commitments structured from a risk-sharing perspective? Specifically, what's the financial exposure or liquidated, excuse me, does Ameresco bear if completion timelines slip due to equipment supply chain bottlenecks or deconation queues or local permitting delays? Thank you. Yeah, that's a great question, George, and we won't get into any project specifics because all of that, as you can imagine, is very sensitive to our customers and to the agreements that we're in. But be assured, as Ameresco and all of our projects would be very mindful and diligent about what commitments we're being signed up to, or that we're signing up to.

Mike is not here, but, you know, since we did the partially sale or the partnership with HACI, the relationship is going very, very, very good. So the development opportunities are increasing and we actually see more opportunities now, not only organic, but maybe some project acquisitions that are coming to us. So the relationship is very, very good. And it gives us a lot of flexibility, great capital contribution into the company, and of course, we can use the capital to grow. Not only that unit, but as well as the other lines of our business.

Thanks, Mark.

Hi, Steve.

No, it's a great question. It's not different than the other projects that we have with the backlog, especially the federal government projects. It was saying that, A, by putting these projects into the award, we have done a great, great diligence to make sure they meet the criteria that we put a particular project into the award category, and they've been some kind of customer side of the piece, so there's some kind of exclusivity agreement between us and that base, and they have achieved certain milestones in their development process. So that's, and then if you look at it, how we move from the award to the contracts, in the data centers, we're probably seeing between six to 24 months.

These awards will move to contract it. And then, of course, once they move to contract it, you're talking 12 to three years, we'll actually implement the implementation schedule.

And the margin of this particular project is basically what we get for the EPC project for the federal government, which is in the high teens.

Look, and Nicole basically said it that what we put on the award category right now is part of what the ultimate size of those particular awards will be. So we'll see if that will probably increase. I wouldn't be surprised that we would get up to $2 billion associated with these particular awards that we have right now.

Sure, and we're continuing. I mean, we're in this business hourly, daily, and continuing to vet opportunities every day and being very strategic and diligent about how we are partnering with new opportunities. So we've looked at, you know, hopefully adding additional projects as we continue to develop in this market. And a little bit more clarity, as Nicole pointed out in her script, there are five opportunities in excluding the LEMO, which is an asset base. And we're looking at at least that many more.

You're right on track. You know, we were very successful with neogenics, and we learned a lot, too, in the process of doing them. And the data center opportunity is very, very large. And it will require a substantial amount of capital. And we will be looking into the opportunity. And if the multiples are right, the right part comes along, and so on, we will do it. There is nothing specific to announce at this point in time. But it could be a great, great opportunity for us to win another vehicle like Cleanogenics.

Thank you.

Thank you. And I want to kind of ask a high-level question, which is obviously behind the meter, you know, in time, the power becoming a key consideration for a lot of developers. I can see that's really the solution that you're architecting here. But can you just take us through how you won these awards? Who the customers are? Obviously, we're not expecting you to name them, but are they hypers? Are they neos? Are they government? You know, and with the understanding that as you build these critical relationships, there's opportunity for a lot of future leaders.

Nicole worked very hard in order to get them, so I will let Nicole.

No, I mean, thanks, and as we shared in the previous earnings calls, I mean, our reputation with the federal government has served as well as a great entry point into this market, because we've been basically serving as the utility in the federal government space for decades now, And now getting in there, and we're working with not only data center operators, but also hyperscalers, neoclouds, and also just getting in through commercial real estate developers that have played in this market before, just now having the added power side to this, which was different than what maybe they had done before. So we like what our delivery model is and that we are bringing integrated energy solutions to it.

So we're integrating different types of assets together and being able to have the ability to microgrid these. And that's been a unique offering for us. So that's a little bit more into what we're doing. And I just think that the opportunity with our experience and our flexibility in what we're offering has served us well with the different players in this ecosystem.

Thanks, Nicole.

They are part of the deals, yes.

We have not been placing orders yet for these projects because they're still in our awarded pipeline, and that's not been the model that we've chosen to do for this market. But we are working in finalizing the equipment selection with our partners, and that's just where we are. They're at different phases in that development, but far enough along that we moved them into the awarded pipeline, and then we'll continue to develop these to convert them into the contracts and then placing equipment.

Thanks, Noah.

Hey, George. George, you touched on it a little earlier, but could you talk more about the potential revenue cadence for Ameresco for a project that comes online in, you know, 2028, 29, or 2030? Yeah, let's say a typical project, a federal government project, once we get the award, some selection by the federal government, then we do the detail engineering and orates and so on and negotiate the scope with the government. It usually takes about 24 months, I mean 12 to 24 months to get the award to contracts. And once it gets contracted, some of the projects they have one year, Timeline, but if it's a turbine or a super-occasion engine power plant, very complex, it might take up to two years.

So it moves along.

I mean, it really just depends on which project it is and what we're doing. And on the data centers, I did say they indicated six months to 24 months to move the award because we know what the development is on some of them and the milestones that they have achieved. And the hyperscalers and the developers, they move a little bit faster than the federal government, plus they need this stuff.

You know, there is a sense of urgency that they get this power up as soon as possible.

LEMORE is still in our awarded backlog, and it's like any of the projects we've been I thought it has the development timeline of 12 to 24 months, so we're just moving along in that development right now.

Okay.

I'll answer your first question. And the data center opportunities are expected to be our normal EPC revenue recognition, percent complete in accordance with our spend. It's not an asset sale, or there's no different balance sheet treatment than any of our other project business. Nicole, on the iteration and whatnot. This will be straight EPC revenue.

Correct. Yeah, and that's a great question. Not too geeky on the other one, because it's an important one. And the battery storage in these, pays for these, will probably, I mean, it really depends on the site, but for both. One is for the resiliency for when you're doing maintenance or upsets. The other side of that is really just to stabilize the load shift from the varying, especially with the AI load profile.

And so, a combination.

Two hours.

Two hours.

All right. Got it. Got it.

I think they're all, I mean, we're seeing similar. I mean, some are, depending on which ones we're looking at, but some are like smaller phases. Others are phased out campuses, and we're maybe playing a part of one of the phases, or we may be playing all of the phases. So it really depends on the project. But I'd say that there will be all these similar technologies that we mentioned before, a combination of reciprocating engines, fuel cells for some of the earlier deployment ones just for speed to power, and then some of the longer out there phases using combined cycle gas turbines and just simple cycle gas turbines. One other thing that I want to add, so it gives you a little bit better perspective, guys, the opportunity with these data centers.

These five ones that we are talking about does not include the federal government basis that they are going out and we have the enhanced list uses. And we have five of them. I agree on that five, though. It's Limor, which announced before, and the other one is Pearl Harbor. So there's considerable potential. And the fact is, because people are beginning to realize that in order for them to be successful and win the AI race, they have to develop their own power plants, own site generation. And that's why we came into the picture, and our track record with the federal government building these resiliency power plants with microgrids and so on, it's helping us a lot.

And we're getting great traction in the marketplace.

Up to three years, let's say we have to build 500 megawatts, one gigawatt power plant on a particular data center that might have three or four phases. And that's what's happening. Some of them, and that's why we said we think that the ones that we have, they will become larger because they have several phases. So phase one might take six months to a year, phase two another year or so, and so on. That's why I gave the perspective up to three years. And the other one, I think it's important to give you a little bit more color, guys. We said six months to 24 months. So, most likely, we will not see a big impact coming from the data centers until 28 and beyond, between 28 to 30.

You might see a small impact next year, but the major impact will be 28 to 30. And why we feel so excited, though, about it, because the awarded projects give you the early indication where we're going to be two to three years down the road.

Yeah, it's probably a little too soon, especially, I mean, the shape of any construction project tends to be a little bit front-end loaded as we're placing equipment orders and doing some of the heavy mobilization.

But since we now have six of these projects going on, there could be – you sort of get maybe a potential smoothing, but it's a little early for that to give you an exact rule of thumb of what the revenue would look like.

Yeah, I was just going to add, so you're also excited that after the construction with all of these, there's a significant operation and maintenance stream associated with it. So as Mark pointed out in our earnings script, that's one place that we've always been focused on building that recurring revenue, which these would certainly present that opportunity.

Sure, and those are good questions, and as I mentioned before, the customer types, I mean, with all of these projects, there are multiple customers in there. I mean, there's the landowner, there's the data center operator, and certainly the NDIS tenants, but hyperscalers, neocloud tenants as well. So we're working with a large set of those that are all playing in this market. As far as the risk, I would say, I mean, we've been working for federal government and for utilities for quite so many years, so similar risk for building, anytime when you're taking on building and developing these large infrastructure projects, it's a similar risk type of profile. And what we're trying to do to mitigate some of the risk in development is making sure that we've been strategic about who we're partnering with up front and the work that they've done already, picking partners that have had local, strong relations in that community, customers that have been in this market before, and certainly, you know, our strategy by working on federal government lands where it has a lot less of that outside community risk as well.

So those are all things that we've been doing, you know, and why we've been working on this for the past months on this to make sure that we have qualified these.

Yeah, for-so for 2026, you know, what we have visibility to from the data centers, we've already baked in, and obviously we've reaffirmed that, so we're feeling pretty good about that. We don't expect it to have too significant an impact, but what we do feel comfortable with, we've already baked into guidance for 2026.