Jigar Shah Appointed to Empower Energies Board of Directors

TROY, Mich., May 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Empower Energies, a leading Renewable Portfolio Solutions company, announced the appointment of Jigar Shah, founder of SunEdison and the first CEO of the Carbon War Room, to its Board of Directors effective immediately.

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"By driving global standardization of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) business model, Jigar Shah enabled mainstream capital to flow into the solar industry, and was a key to unlocking proven solar technologies to be deployed worldwide," said David Kay, Chairman of the Empower Energies Board of Directors. "A quintessential entrepreneur, Jigar founded and built SunEdison, which was sold to MEMC in 2009. Since then he has gone on to apply this business model innovation to solar thermal, building efficiency, and other industries, creating significant value for customers and shareholders alike."

"While the industrial sector has utilized internal teams to deploy efficiency and renewable energy, external partners such as Empower Energies play a catalyzing role in introducing new innovations and approaches to optimize, stage, and manage the right strategy to control energy costs and reduce environmental impacts," said Shah. "This is an area that has been underserved globally, and that makes it a significant opportunity. The Empower Energies team is well suited to deliver the right mix of renewables and energy management for these commercial and industrial companies. For example, Empower Energies is already making a real impact for global companies such as General Motors."

"Jigar and I worked together at SunEdison, and I am excited to team with him again as we build Empower Energies by serving the needs of our customers and stakeholders," said Len Jornlin, CEO of Empower Energies. "As a trusted advisor to commercial and industrial clients, Empower Energies brings together the right technologies, financiers, and reliable partners to unlock renewable energy opportunities that are specifically tailored for each customer.  We apply precisely the right mix to meet its specific business and sustainability objectives."

"I am looking forward to leveraging the initial successes of Empower Energies to build a multi-technology platform to accelerate and optimize the deployment of sustainable technologies into industrial companies," Shah concluded.

Shah joins Kay and Jornlin on a Board of Directors that includes Vice Chairman Abraham L. Morris and Directors Joost Schellens, Joseph Fleck, and Jack DeLiddo. He adds his vision and long resume to a leadership team already endowed with significant finance, operations, and development expertise.

About Jigar Shah
Jigar Shah is CEO of Jigar Shah Consulting and a board member of the Carbon War Room, the global organization founded by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin United to help entrepreneurs address climate change. He served as the Carbon War Room's first CEO from 2009-2012. Shah founded SunEdison, now part of MEMC, which remains the world's leading solar services company. Prior to SunEdison, Shah worked within strategy at BP Solar, and before that was a contractor for the Department of Energy on vehicles and fuel cell programs.

Shah is an entrepreneur and visionary committed to leveraging the 'next economy' by deploying existing technologies that solve the challenging issues of our time. He is the author of the upcoming book: Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy.

Shah holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and an M.B.A. from The University of Maryland. He also sits on the boards of the SolarNexus, KMR Infrastructure, Prometheus Institute, and Greenpeace USA.

About Empower Energies
Empower Energies, Inc., headquartered in Troy, Michigan, is a renewable portfolio solutions provider focused on commercial-scale renewable energy, enterprise energy management, and clean transport infrastructure for General Motors and other customers, both in the United States and internationally. More information about Empower Energies can be found at http://www.EmpowerEnergies.com.

SOURCE Empower Energies