Ameresco Quantum Expands Partnership with Battle Ground School District to Reduce Energy Costs and Support Efficiency Goals

District receives state energy efficiency grant for project developed by Ameresco Quantum

FRAMINGHAM, MA and BRUSH PRAIRIE, WA – January 18, 2013 –Ameresco, Inc., (NYSE:AMRC), a leading energy efficiency and renewable energy company, announced today that Ameresco Quantum, Inc. has begun work on a $3.9 million Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) for the Battle Ground School District in Clark County, Washington.  The cost to the District of the project will be reduced by a $1 million Energy Savings Grant from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and an estimated $322,000 in rebates from the Clark County Public Utility District.  This group of energy efficiency infrastructure upgrades follows two energy conservation projects completed by Ameresco Quantum for the District in 2010 and 2011 that focused on major plumbing and lighting upgrades.

Battle Ground schools that will receive upgrades through the new project include Battle Ground High School, Prairie High School, Amboy Middle School, Maple Grove Primary and Middle School, Captain Strong Elementary School, Yacolt Primary School, and the Center for Agriculture, Science, and Environmental Education Building Complex.

“This grant will result in dramatic savings in our utility bills, guard against system failures and enable us to address long-standing issues of failed and aging equipment,” said Mary Beth Lynn, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and School Operations of Battle Ground School District.

“The state energy efficiency grants and the guaranteed savings provided by our energy performance contracting model has allowed many school districts, as well as municipalities and colleges across the state, to dramatically reduce operational costs and achieve long desired energy efficiency goals,” said Mike O’Connor, Vice President, Northwest Region for Ameresco.  “This project at the Battle Ground School District is a perfect example of how energy infrastructure improvements can yield positive financial impacts even in the current fiscal environment, while at the same time contributing to more sustainable communities.”

Over the course of the contract, Ameresco Quantum will manage the design and installation of new mechanical systems, as well as upgrades and replacements to the District’s energy management systems and other equipment.  In addition to reducing utility costs, these improvements will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by decreasing carbon emissions by nearly 2 million pounds per year.

The $1 million state energy efficiency grant that Ameresco Quantum helped secure for this project is one of more than 78 such grants valued at nearly $35 million that the State has awarded to projects developed by Ameresco Quantum since 2009.

As one of the largest providers of energy services in the Pacific Northwest, Ameresco Quantum has implemented energy savings performance contracts for colleges, school districts, municipalities and state agencies.  Ameresco pioneered the ESPC financing model, making the budget-neutral solution an increasingly popular option when modernizing a single facility or providing a comprehensive campus-wide energy management system.

About the Battle Ground School District
The Battle Ground School District in northeast Clark County, Washington, has 19 schools spread over 273 square miles.  It stretches from the lowlands of suburban Vancouver on the west, near the confluence of Interstate 5 and Interstate 205, to the Cascade Mountains at the Clark-Skamania county line on the east.  Volcanic Mount St. Helens, which erupted with a vengeance in 1980 and looms above the Southwest Washington landscape, is just 10 miles outside of the district’s northeast boundary.

The district celebrated its Centennial in 2009-2010.  A hundred years earlier, during the presidency of William Howard Taft, two one-school districts – Maple Grove and Dublin – merged and consolidated into what is today the Battle Ground district.  During the first six and a half decades, 54 small, rural districts were folded into it, the last one – Yacolt – in 1975.  Today, Battle Ground Public Schools serve approximately 13,000 students.

About Ameresco, Inc.
Founded in 2000, Ameresco, Inc. (NYSE:AMRC) is a leading independent provider of comprehensive services, energy efficiency, infrastructure upgrades, asset sustainability and renewable energy solutions for facilities throughout North America.  Ameresco’s services include upgrades to a facility’s energy infrastructure and the development, construction and operation of renewable energy plants.  Ameresco has successfully completed energy saving, environmentally responsible projects with federal, state and local governments, healthcare and educational institutions, housing authorities, and commercial and industrial customers.  With its corporate headquarters in Framingham, MA, Ameresco provides local expertise through its 63 offices in 34 states and five Canadian provinces. Ameresco has more than 900 employees.  For more information, visit www.ameresco.com.

The announcement of a customer’s entry into a project contract is not necessarily indicative of the timing or amount of revenue from such contract, of the company’s overall revenue for any particular period or of trends in the company’s overall total construction backlog.