Solar Power, Inc. (SPI) announced its intention to enter into a strategic partnership with ZBB Energy Corporation, a developer of energy management systems solutions serving the utility, commercial and industrial building markets. SPI will purchase certain volume of ZBB’s common stock and ZBB will supply SPI with approximately 40MW of energy storage systems.
As part of the proposed strategic partnership, the parties have executed a Securities Purchase Agreement (SPA) valued at $33.4 million, consisting of a combination of newly issued common stock and convertible preferred stock of ZBB. Under the terms of the SPA, SPI will purchase 8,000,000 shares of ZBB common stock for approximately $5.4 million at a price per share of $0.6678 and 28,048 shares of ZBB Series C Convertible Preferred Stock for approximately $28.0 million. The aggregate purchase price of the purchased preferred shares was determined based on a price of $0.6678 per common equivalent. The SPA also contemplates that ZBB will issue to SPI a warrant to purchase 50,000,000 shares of ZBB common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $36.7 million and a per share exercise price equal to $0.7346.
In addition, the proposed strategic partnership includes a supply agreement pursuant to which ZBB will supply SPI with energy storage systems with total combined power output of 40 MW over a period of four years. The parties intend to enter into the supply agreement upon closing of the SPA.
The energy storage market has experienced rapid growth, driven by commercial, industrial and residential customers seeking energy savings from solar and emergency back-up power from storage. In addition, utilities are increasingly seeking energy storage solutions that can make the grid more resilient and less susceptible to failure.
"This proposed partnership between SPI and ZBB is all about accelerating global solar penetration through the marriage of solar plus storage," said Xiaofeng Peng, Chairman of SPI. "Energy storage systems are becoming vital to PV system expansion worldwide due to a number of factors, and we believe that ZBB's leading technology will help SPI become an early-mover in capturing this huge global opportunity."