How the Reuse Market Can Solve Supply Chain Delays

Avantus announced that the Aratina 1 project in Kern County, California has achieved commercial operations and is now delivering 200 megawatts (MW) of solar and 500 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy storage to the California grid. Avantus plans to maintain a controlling stake in Aratina 1 and operate the project, the first of several assets as Avantus expands from developer to independent power producer (IPP). The project has long-term power purchase agreements with two community choice aggregators (CCAs) — Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) and Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) — for the full output of the project, enough to power more than 105,000 California homes annually.

“Aratina 1 coming online marks a major milestone for Avantus as an independent power producer, providing reliable clean power to California communities for decades to come,” said Cliff Graham, CEO of Avantus. “I'm incredibly proud of what Team Avantus built here. Their expertise across development, construction, financing and operations, and the trust our financing and CCA partners have placed in us, are the foundation we're building our long-term IPP model on.”

“The Aratina project is a powerful example of how community choice energy turns climate goals into real projects on the ground. Our long term commitment to 120 MW from this facility will deliver clean, affordable power to our customers while supporting California’s transition away from fossil fuels,” said Robert Shaw, CEO of Central Coast Community Energy. “We’re grateful to partner with Avantus on a project that strengthens grid reliability and invests in the Central Coast’s clean energy future.” 

“The clean power generated from the Aratina project gets us one step closer to our climate goals. New projects like this are critical in increasing state-wide clean capacity and reliability as we reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and move towards an all-electric future,” said Monica Padilla, CEO of Silicon Valley Clean Energy. 

Financing of more than $500 million for Aratina 1 was provided by a consortium of four lenders led by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Truist Securities, ING Capital, and Mizuho. The project also secured a $300 million tax equity commitment from Truist Bank.

The project created approximately 500 jobs at peak construction and will create local operations roles throughout its operating life.

Avantus is committed to long-term ownership and community partnerships. Early this year, Avantus launched the Boron Community Partnership Panel, a community-led group of local organizations and residents. The panel provides an ongoing forum for dialogue with the local community and helps guide the project’s local investments, with a focus on community-building opportunities that support youth, education, civic, and cultural initiatives.

Aratina 2, the second phase of the Aratina Solar Center, located adjacent to Aratina 1, is currently under construction. Aratina 2 recently closed more than $525 million in financing  and is targeting commercial operations before the end of the year. Once complete, the Aratina Solar Center will represent a combined 350 MW of solar and 952 MWh of energy storage, helping California meet growing energy demand with reliable, dispatchable power.

Avantus | www.avantus.com

CuspAI announced the launch of the AI Materials Foundry, bringing together a global network of data, labs, compute and scientific expertise for the design of new materials, orchestrated by a single agentic platform.

Over 45 organizations join as founding members, including NVIDIA, who will provide the compute infrastructure, and Meta’s Fundamental AI Research Team, who develop the Universal Model for Atoms (UMA), a frontier atomistic chemistry model for materials science.

CuspAI’s proprietary AI platform, MIRA, sits at the heart of the network, enabling partners to run full discovery cycles – from generative materials design through simulation, synthesis route planning, and coordinated experimental validation. The platform is underpinned by the largest curated experimental materials datasets in the world.

The collaboration seeks to end the materials bottleneck constraining progress. Semiconductors, clean energy and advanced manufacturing are among the industries facing the same challenge: while the engineering needed for innovation is well understood, the constraint is materials.

“If we don’t make progress fast, the next 50 years of industrial progress will be constrained by a single challenge: the world needs materials that don’t yet exist. That’s what we’re on a mission to solve - combining frontier agentic AI with deep domain expertise, exclusive data access and close customer partnerships. We’re delighted to be joined by more than 45 leaders in their fields to advance materials discovery.”

– Dr Chad Edwards, CEO and Co-Founder, CuspAI

"As AI transforms the physical world, new materials will open up new frontiers across semiconductors, energy and advanced manufacturing. The AI Materials Foundry brings NVIDIA accelerated computing infrastructure together with world-class chemistry and materials expertise to help power the next generation of materials discovery.”

– Ian Buck, Vice President of Hyperscale and HPC, NVIDIA

"We're proud to be longstanding partners with CuspAI and now as founding members of the AI Materials Foundry ecosystem. Our open source frontier models for materials science research will enable more teams to tackle previously intractable challenges, more precisely and more quickly than before."

– Rob Fergus, Vice President, AI Research and Head of FAIR, Meta

Unlocking AI-powered materials discovery

Software-led materials discovery requires four things: high quality training data at scale, to make AI predictions reliable; compute powerful enough to screen at molecular resolution across billions of candidates; synthesis infrastructure to move from digital design to physical reality; and domain expertise to interpret what the machine finds and know what to do with it.

CuspAI’s AI Materials Foundry assembles all four, for the first time, providing the production infrastructure for industrial materials discovery. Rather than relying on the physical constraints of a single, isolated laboratory, CuspAI’s ecosystem approach creates a compounding intelligence loop: breakthroughs achieved within the network have potential to accelerate discovery timelines across the entire global value chain.

CuspAI brings a track record for accelerating discovery. With a single customer, Finnish chemicals company Kemira, CuspAI was able to screen a search space of 300 trillion potential molecular structures, delivering twenty validated novel candidates for further testing and validation. This process previously took the customer years, while CuspAI’s programme was achieved in six months.

One Foundry project already underway is a new multi-year partnership between CuspAI and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore’s lead public sector R&D agency. The collaboration will combine AI-driven discovery with autonomous synthesis capability across semiconductors, carbon capture and advanced electronics.

Private, protected, partner-led agentic design

Through the Foundry programme, members will get to learn about state of the art methods in AI for Science and agentic materials discovery, including how to deploy CuspAI's discovery platform and autonomous scientific agent, MIRA, within their existing R&D infrastructure.

A partner defines what they need: a compound with specific thermal stability, a semiconductor with a target bandgap, a catalyst with a defined reaction profile, a polymer meeting a set cost threshold – and MIRA generates candidate structures using generative models trained on the world's most comprehensive experimental dataset. Capable of running property prediction at scale across millions of candidates, MIRA selects the most promising, designs synthesis routes matched to the available lab infrastructure in the network, and routes the work to the right facility based on capability, geography and throughput. It tracks outcomes, feeds results back into the model, and sharpens its predictions with every cycle.

Partner data is protected in private Foundry instances. The platform is designed for industrial confidentiality at the scale of multinational and government operations.

At the simulation layer, the Foundry runs on kUPS: an open source molecular simulation toolkit built by CuspAI in collaboration with the NVIDIA ALCHEMI (AI Lab for Chemistry and Materials Innovation) team and will leverage Meta’s UMA, which enables fast, accurate simulation of atomic interactions across the periodic table. kUPS is integrating with ALCHEMI, enabling a continuous pipeline from candidate generation to physical property prediction at GPU scale.

CuspAI’s team, and scientific architecture, were built to solve the material discovery problem. CuspAI CTO and co-founder, Professor Max Welling, co-invented the variational autoencoder (VAE) and the equivariant neural network architectures that now underpin generative molecular design. Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Aron Walsh FRS, is one of the world's foremost computational materials scientists. John Giannandrea, who built and led AI research at Google before serving as Apple's SVP of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, will help set up US foundry operations.

The quality of any AI system for materials discovery is determined almost entirely by the calibre of the data it was trained on. CuspAI has secured exclusive AI training rights to the datasets that make up the foundational experimental records of materials science including the Cambridge Structural Database via CCDC and the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database via FIZ Karlsruhe. It also has licensed access to materials science content from Wiley and other leading publishers of scientific journals. This dataset is paired with frontier atomistic chemistry models from Meta and compounded by every validated experimental result returned through Foundry programmes, ensuring the data advantage widens with each programme completed.

FOUNDING PARTNERS

• 3M
• AMD
• Applied Materials
• ASMPT
• Caelux
• Fujifilm
• The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
• Henkel
• Hitachi High-Tech
• Hyundai Motor Group
• Johnson Matthey
• JSR Corporation
• Kemira
• Kioxia
• Lam Research
• LG CNS
• Merck
• Meta
• Mitsui Chemicals
• NVIDIA
• Oxford PV
• Qnity Electronics, Inc
• Resonac
• Samsung
• Shimadzu
• SoftBank Corp.
• Tokyo Electron (TEL)
• Topsoe
• Umicore
• Universal Display Corporation (UDC)
• VisionPower Semiconductor Manufacturing Company

LAB NETWORK

• A*STAR
• AMOLF
• ATLANT 3D
• Avantium
• Big Chemistry
• Cambridge University
• Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER)
• Eindhoven University of Technology
• Henry Royce Institute
• hte - the high throughput experimentation company
• IMEC
• Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
• Tyndall National Institute
• University of Amsterdam
• VSParticle

DATA PARTNERS

• CCDC
• ICSD and FIZ Karlsruhe
• Wiley

CuspAI | www.cusp.ai

Exus Renewables North America (Exus), a leading independent power producer specializing in renewable energy solutions for data centers and other large energy consumers, announced the closing of approximately $356M in construction financing for two Pennsylvania wind energy projects: the Cambria Wind Farm and the Highland North Wind Farm. KeyBanc Capital Markets, along with other partners,served as Coordinating Lead Arranger on the transaction.

The Cambria Wind Farm is a repowered 61.6 MW project in Adams Township, Cambria County, currently under construction with commercial operation expected in Fall 2026. The Highland North Wind Farm is a repowered 75 MW project, also in Cambria County. Both projects utilize Vestas turbines.

"The demand for clean energy from data centers and large corporations isn't slowing down, it's accelerating," said Jim Spencer, President and CEO, Exus Renewables North America. "For good developers with strong pipelines and quality sponsors, the capital is there, and this is exactly the kind of execution we're built for."

"KeyBank has a long history in Pennsylvania, and we're proud to support projects that expand clean energy generation while creating economic opportunities across the Commonwealth," said Andy Redinger, Managing Director and Head of the Utility, Power and Renewable Energy Group at KeyBanc Capital Markets. "Highland North and Cambria are high-quality projects led by an experienced developer, and this financing underscores our confidence in Exus and the long-term strength of the renewable energy sector."

The projects expand Exus's footprint in Pennsylvania, where the company owns over 306.9 MW of wind capacity, including the Twin Ridges Wind Farm, a completed 139.4 MW facility in Somerset County. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for both Highland North and Cambria is planned for September 2026. Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP served as legal counsel to Exus; Paul Hastings LLP served as counsel to the lenders.

Exus Renewables North America | https://www.exus.us/

SunPower Inc., a solar technology, services, and installation company, announced the successful completion of a megawatt solar system at the Millenium Project, a 330-unit community in Palm Desert, California. SunPower was awarded a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 90, marking a significant milestone in SunPower’s ongoing customer transformation program. Guy Winters, President of PearlX, Millenium’s owner, added, “The Millennium project is exactly what our Energy Estate model was built to deliver: real infrastructure producing real returns – for us, for the property owner and for the residents.

This 977-kilowatt system will generate over 1.6 million kWh of clean, locally produced energy every year for the folks who live here, backed by a 30-year commitment to keep it performing at its peak. SunPower's NPS score of 90 validates our selection of the right partner for the job: quality installation, disciplined execution, and zero excuses. That's the standard behind every Energy Estate we build, and we're looking forward to expanding this partnership with SunPower for years to come.”

Millenium Carports demonstrate architectural elegance

SunPower CEO, T.J. Rodgers, said, “The engineer in me sees a beautifully architected carport structure in which solar panels eliminate the need for a conventional roof and keep residents and their automobiles out of the desert sun for 30-plus years. The physicist in me knows the million watts of peak power the system produces actually comes from converting light energy into usable electricity rather than allowing the million watts to heat the asphalt, cars and people.

“The 90% NPS score awarded to us uses an industry standard rating system that has a -100% to +100% scale. According to a SurveyMonkey 150,000-company benchmark, NPS scores of -100% to 0% relegate companies to the bottom quartile, while scores in the 0%-70% range differentiate companies from “good” to “great” to “excellent.” Apple is usually an NPS leader with a reported 70% score.

Rodgers Continued, “To be fully candid, a very high NPS score on even a big, sophisticated project does not accurately reflect SunPower’s overall NPS, which was -25% in Q2’25 when we acquired old-SunPower after its bankruptcy had shut down literally hundreds of projects, including Millenium, whose problems were addressed vigorously by our excellent quality team, which is led by Surinder S. Bedi, a 30-year Silicon Valley veteran. Since recording the -25% NPS in Q2’25, we have improved every quarter, moving toward our NPS target of 70%-plus, which my old company, Cypress Semiconductor, achieved after four years of work. Our goal is to get to 70% in Q2’27, two years after launch.

Rodgers concluded, “The fully installed price of solar systems drops every year, while the cost of utility-based power is forecasted to rise every year, creating both a push and a pull to grow the residential solar market. Right now, according to EnergySage, the cost of a home solar system in California is about $2.47 per watt, which pays for itself with reduced utility bills in 7.3 years. Furthermore, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, only 15% of the California homes for which solar makes financial sense have actually installed it. The U.S. install figure is only 7%, leaving 85% of California homes and 93% of U.S. homeowners as future customers.”

SunPower | www.sunpower.com

PearlX | https://pearlx.com/

ARRAY Technologies (NASDAQ: ARRY) (“ARRAY” or the “Company”), a leading global provider of solar tracking technology and fixed-tilt products, foundation solutions, software systems and services, announced that it will host an APA Investor Technology Showcase on Thursday, August 20, 2026, beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET.

Held approximately one year after the close of ARRAY’s acquisition of APA Solar (APA), the event will feature presentations and a Q&A session with CEO Kevin Hostetler and members of ARRAY and APA’s leadership teams. Presentations will cover the Company's Balance of System strategy, an overview and deep dive on APA, ARRAY’s innovation roadmap and long-term growth opportunities.

Following the presentations, in-person attendees will attend a manufacturing facility tour and live product demonstrations at APA’s headquarters in Ridgeville Corners, Ohio.

Advance registration is required for in-person attendance. Investors interested in attending the event in person are encouraged to contact ARRAY Investor Relations at [email protected] for additional information.

Registration for the live webcast will be available through the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at investors.arraytechinc.com. The webcast will begin at 9:00 a.m. ET, and an archived replay of the event will be available following its conclusion.

ARRAY Technologies | arraytechinc.com

Nextpower (Nasdaq: NXT), a leading provider of integrated energy technology solutions, announced it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Prevalon Energy, a U.S.-headquartered provider of large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS), power stabilization solutions, and lifecycle services. This acquisition marks another milestone in Nextpower’s strategy to provide end-to-end solutions spanning power plant design, deployment, optimization, and long-term operations.

With the addition of energy storage, Nextpower’s integrated platform extends beyond solar with a proven portfolio of BESS, energy management software, and power control technologies and lifecycle services supporting grid-connected storage, hybrid power plants, AI data center infrastructure, and other critical power applications. The business brings a proven track record with more than 6 GWh of energy storage systems deployed worldwide.

“We are very pleased to welcome the talented Prevalon team to Nextpower. The team will continue to be run by Tom Cornell, who led Prevalon as CEO since its founding,” said Dan Shugar, founder and CEO of Nextpower. “Reliable energy storage is foundational to designing, building, and operating critical energy infrastructure. The addition of Prevalon expands our ability to serve utility-scale customers and data centers with a broader portfolio of proven technologies from a trusted, bankable partner. It also provides Nextpower with a significant foothold in one of the fastest growing segments of the global power industry.

"As demand for electricity accelerates, utilities, power producers, data center developers, and grid operators need accountable, bankable partners that can deliver reliable, dispatchable power at unprecedented scale and speed. With our customer-centric approach, reputation for high-quality execution, and proven ability to rapidly scale, Nextpower is uniquely positioned to serve both continued growth of utility-scale solar and the rapidly growing energy storage market.”

Inducement Awards

In connection with the closing of the acquisition of Prevalon Energy, Nextpower also announced the grant of inducement awards (the “Inducement Awards”) to former Prevalon employees as a material inducement to commencing employment with Nextpower following the transaction.

The Inducement Awards consist of an aggregate of 810,733 performance-based restricted stock units (“PSUs”) and up to 375,000 service-based restricted stock units (“RSUs”), in each case with respect to Nextpower’s Class A common stock.

The RSUs vest in equal annual installments on each of the first four anniversaries of the closing date, subject generally to the employee’s continued employment through the applicable vesting date. The PSUs will be earned and vest between 0% and 100% based on the level of Prevalon’s achievement of a gross profit performance goal measured from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2030, subject generally to the employee’s continued employment through the last day of the performance period.

The Inducement Awards were granted in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4) and were unanimously approved by the Compensation and People Committee of the Board of Directors of Nextpower, which is comprised solely of independent directors under Nasdaq Listing Rules. While the Inducement Awards were granted outside of Nextpower’s Second Amended and Restated 2022 Equity Incentive Plan, the awards are subject to terms and conditions substantially consistent with those set forth under the plan.

Nextpower | www.nextpower.com

PowerBank Corporation (Nasdaq: PBK) (Cboe CA: PBK) (FSE: 103) ("PowerBank" or the "Company"), a leader in independent energy development and asset ownership in North America, is pleased to announce it has executed a lease agreement on a 3.2 MW DC ground-mount solar project known as the Scofield project (the "Project"), in Broome County, New York. The Project is expected to be eligible for incentives under the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority ("NYSERDA") NY-Sun Program.

The Project is progressing well, with an interconnection application already underway. Assuming receipt of interconnection approval, the Company will work to complete the permitting process and secure the necessary financing for the construction of the Project.

Once completed, the Project will be operated as a community solar project. Community solar is a group of solar panels with access to the local electricity grid. Once the panels are turned on and generating electricity, clean energy from the site feeds into the local power grid. Depending on the size and number of panels the project has, dozens or even hundreds of renters and homeowners can save money from the electricity that is generated by the project. By subscribing to a project, a homeowner earns credits on their electric bill every month from their portion of the solar power that's generated by the project, accessing the benefits of solar without installing panels on their home. This allows homeowners to realize a reduced cost per kW/hour from the power they consume versus standard utility rates.

This Project is expected to remain eligible for the United States federal Investment Tax Credits for energy projects under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, as physical work began on the Project prior to the July 4, 2026 deadline and the physical work is expected to meet the requirements under the IRS Physical Work Test. The Project has a total construction value of approximately $8 million USD, and an expected ITC value of approximately $3.2 million USD.

Investment Tax Credits have been available for solar projects since 2006, providing a 30% tax credit for commercial solar installations that meet specific requirements, with opportunities for ITC bonus adders. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, specifies that the Section 48E Investment Tax Credit for solar facilities will be phased out, and projects which have begun construction on or before July 4, 2026, will remain eligible for the tax credits.

The Scofield project is a relocation and redesign of the previously announced Boyle Rd. project.

Compensation Matters

Amending Agreements to Executive Officer Agreements

The Company entered into amending agreements with certain of its executive officers, each as described below:

• Amendment to consulting agreement dated July 1, 2026 between the Company and Art Vancouver Productions Inc. (the "Wayrynen Amending Agreement"), pursuant to which Mr. Matthew Wayrynen will continue to provide services to the Company as Executive Chair. Pursuant to the Wayrynen Amending Agreement, the monthly fee for the services of Mr. Wayrynen will be increased to C$50,000 (plus applicable taxes) and is subject to further increase to up to C$100,000 per month upon the Company completing equity or debt financings in an aggregate amount equal to or greater than US$25,000,000.
• Amendment to consulting agreement between the Company and Light Voltaic Corporation (the "Lu Amending Agreement") dated July 1, 2026, pursuant to which Dr. Richard Lu will continue to provide services as the Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Pursuant to the Lu Amending Agreement, the monthly fee for the services of Dr. Lu will be increased to C$66,875 (plus applicable taxes) and is subject to further increase to up to C$100,000 per month upon the Company completing equity or debt financings in an aggregate amount equal to or greater than US$25,000,000.
• Amendment to the consulting agreement between the Company and The Phoenix Trendz Inc. (the "Zheng Amending Agreement") dated July 1, 2026, pursuant to which Ms. Tracy Zheng will continue to provide services as the Executive Vice President, Corporate Development of the Company. Pursuant to the Zheng Amending Agreement, the monthly fee for the services of Ms. Zheng will be increased to C$33,334 (plus applicable taxes) and is subject to further increase to up to C$50,000 per month upon the Company completing equity or debt financings in an aggregate amount equal to or greater than US$25,000,000.

All of the agreements set forth above have a term of five years.

Amending Agreements to Consulting Agreements 

PowerBank also entered into a series of amending agreements with three members of its advisory board and a corporate advisor. The terms of such agreements are for a five-year period. Under the amended terms, each individual advisor will receive a monthly fee of C$50,000, payable in a combination of cash and Common Shares. The corporate advisor continues to receive a monthly fee of US$50,000. The fees may be increased upon the completion of equity or debt financings by the Company above specified thresholds.

PowerBank also entered into an amending agreement with its General Counsel. Under the amended terms, its General Counsel will receive a monthly fee of C$50,000, payable in a combination of cash and Common Shares. The fees may be increased upon the completion of equity or debt financings by the Company above specified thresholds.

The compensation disclosed in this news release, along with the fees payable to the Company's independent directors (C$112,500 total for all independent directors for each calendar quarter), are, at the election of the Company and subject to stock exchange approval, payable in shares of the Company on a quarterly basis based on the closing market price of the Company's shares on the last trading day of each quarter.

In addition to the above, the Company has also made grants of restricted share units within the current limits set out in its restricted share unit plan to certain directors, officers, employees and consultants.

All dollar amounts herein are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise specified.

Shares to Solar Flow-Through Directors

In addition, the Company will issue a total of 298,804 shares to certain former and current directors and officers of Solar Flow-Through Funds Ltd. ("SFF") These shares are issuable in connection with outstanding directors fees due to such directors or officers that were assumed as part of the acquisition of Solar Flow-Through Funds Ltd. ("SFF").

The issuance of 58,926 shares to Matthew Wayrynen (director and officer of the Company) and 58,926 shares indirectly to Frederick Jung (officer of SFF) (collectively, the "Related Parties"), will be considered "related party transactions" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") adopted in the Policy. The Company intends to rely on the exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 in respect of such Related Parties' participation in the Debt Settlement as neither the fair market value of the Debt Settlement of, nor the fair market value of the Shares to be issued thereunder, insofar as it involves Related Parties, is expected to exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization (all as determined under MI 61-101). A material change report will not be filed in connection with this transaction. The securities of the Company that will be acquired by the Related Parties will be acquired pursuant to an exemption from the prospectus requirement in section 2.14 of National Instrument 45-106. The Board of Directors of the Company approved the issuance of these shares with Mr. Wayrynen abstaining from voting on the approval of the issuance of his shares. As a result of this transaction Mr. Wayrynen and Mr. Jung's percentage ownership of common shares of the Company will increase to 1.06% and 0.41%, respectively.

The issuance of shares is subject to final acceptance of the Cboe Canada Exchange Inc. and all shares issued thereunder will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months and a day from the date of issuance in accordance with applicable securities legislation.

PowerBank's proven expertise, with over 100 MW of completed projects and a development pipeline exceeding 1 GW, underpins the project's execution. Strategic partnerships and institutional-grade development capabilities position PowerBank to deliver reliable, high-impact energy solutions. These capabilities are increasingly valuable as AI and data center growth place unprecedented demand on the North American grid.

PowerBank | www.powerbankcorp.com