Juhl Energy, Inc. Prepares for Significant Growth of its Juhl Tower Services Division

PIPESTONE, Minn., March 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Juhl Energy, Inc. (OTCQB: JUHL, the "Company"), a leading provider of Clean Energy Solutions and the Leader in Community Wind Power, is pleased to announce today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Juhl Tower Services has positioned itself for tremendous growth as the size and depth of the mobile data and communications market continues to increase. Wrapping up its startup period in the latter half of 2013, Juhl Tower enters 2014 having already completed work on approximately 156 cellular tower sites, in several states stretching from Illinois to West Virginia. 

In 2013, the Company formed Juhl Tower Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Juhl Energy Services, Inc. to perform construction, upgrade and maintenance activities on cellular communication towers located throughout the U.S.  Juhl Tower Services not only presents the Company with the unique opportunity to provide their wind turbine maintenance expertise and experience to the owners and operators of cellular communication towers, but also creates another growing and collaborative revenue channel for Juhl Energy, Inc. 

"We entered this business sector because the cellular companies view our core wind business as having key similarities to the upgrade and servicing of cell towers – mainly, knowing how to manage the safety, quality and logistics of performing highly-specialized services while climbing significant heights in the wind turbine business," stated John Mitola, Juhl Energy, Inc. President.  "Most of our work in this area is focused on installing antenna upgrades to existing towers for the major cellular providers as they quickly expand their 4G/LTE networks to meet the requirements of demanding smart-phones, tablets and other wireless components." 

"In the future, we hope to expand our work in this area to full-scale construction and ownership and operation of our own cell towers – a model that would be consistent with our Juhl Renewable Assets, Inc. subsidiary and its ownership and operation of energy assets," added Mitola.

In a September 2, 2013 article published in The Wall Street Journal, Verizon's Chief Executive stated that he "sees the wireless market in the U.S. poised for another growth spurt."  The article mentioned that the nation's largest wireless company thought that "mobile penetration could reach 300% to 500%, meaning every person would carry or be connected to networks with three to five unique devices."  According to the CTIA, the trade group for the wireless industry, wireless penetration has already topped 102% in the U.S.

As Juhl Tower enters its first full year of operations, the Company has taken steps to strengthen its position in the market by completing its business integration of MDTS Inc., an 8-year-old cell tower company based in Chatham, Illinois, that initially joined forces with Juhl Tower through a joint venture. 

Juhl Energy has also made key additions to its management team to handle the expected overall growth in 2014 and beyond.  Tom White will continue as Juhl Tower's chief operating officer, while Matt Denney, previously with MDTS, Inc. will serve as Juhl Tower's Senior Vice President of Operations and Mike Borkowski has been added as Senior Vice President of Finance and Business Development of Juhl Tower Services.

"Our work in the fourth quarter of 2013 and in the early part of 2014 has shown an increase in number of sites completed by our team for two major carriers.  More importantly, I am proud to say we delivered excellent results not just on hitting our own expectations, but also based on direct feedback from our customers commending our crews," continued Mitola.  "Based on these results we are being asked to work for more customers and expand into other regions."

"It's clear that the market demand for faster service, broader coverage and the ability to work with larger content is paramount to consumers.  As a result, we believe the acceleration in the demand for cellular communication towers will continue.  We already have our cellular clients talking to us about projects they have planned into 2016.  If some of these industry experts are correct in predicting that we could all have multiple devices connected to cellular networks, we could see growth of 3 to 5 times from where the industry is today.  While that seems just staggering, we believe that Juhl Tower Services is positioned to potentially capture a solid portion of this industry expansion," added Mitola. 

"Our team has grown both in the field and in the back office," continued Mitola.  "This has positioned Juhl Tower to expand our customer base, our range of services and our geographical footprint to serve more customers in more regions.  The added members to our executive team have allowed me the opportunity to focus on one of our new initiatives – the acquisition of existing cell towers to add to our Juhl Renewable Assets portfolio."

"Wind towers, cell towers and other forms of clean energy assets all represent long-term utility assets that we all use every day and ones that we believe can provide reliable and predictable cash flows for Juhl and our partners – you can't use a cell phone without a cell tower or without the electricity to charge it!" Mitola concluded.

About Juhl Energy, Inc.

Juhl Energy is an established leader in the renewable energy industry with a focus on competitive, clean energy solutions and community-based wind power development, ownership and management throughout the United States and Canada.  Juhl Energy pioneered community-based wind farms, developing the currently accepted financial, operational and legal structure providing local ownership of medium-to-large scale wind farms in rural America.  To date, the Company has completed 24 wind farm projects totaling 240 MW and provides operations management and oversight across the portfolio. Juhl Energy services every aspect of wind farm development from full development and ownership, general consultation, construction management and system operations and maintenance.  Juhl Energy also provides a broad range of clean energy solutions. 

Juhl Energy operates three primary business segments: renewable energy development, renewable power plant ownership, and energy and telecommunications services.  Through its Juhl Energy Development Inc. (JEDI) subsidiary, the Company provides medium and large-scale wind, solar, and cogeneration energy development services.  With its acquisitions of the Valley View, Winona County and Woodstock Hills wind farms, the Company now owns and operates 21.7 MWs of wind power through its renewable power subsidiary, Juhl Renewable Assets, Inc. (JRAI).  Through its third subsidiary, Juhl Energy Services, Inc. (JESI), and its acquisition of Power Engineers Collaborative, Inc., the Company provides a full range of engineering services to the energy industry, building systems markets, and heavy industry.  JESI also provides full sales and service to smaller, on-site wind and solar projects through its Juhl Renewable Energy Systems division.  JESI leverages the Company's deep experience with wind towers to also provide cell and radio tower services through its Juhl Tower Services division.  Juhl Energy is based in Pipestone, Minnesota and has offices in Chicago, Minneapolis, Madison and Milwaukee. Juhl Energy is traded on the OTCQB under the symbol 'JUHL'.  Additional information is available at the Company's website at www.juhlenergy.com or by calling (507) 562-8090.

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Juhl Energy Investor Relations
Jody Janson
Phone: (888) 438-JUHL (5845)
Fax: 585-232-5457
Email: [email protected]

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 including statements that reflect Juhl Energy's current expectations about its future results, performance, prospects and opportunities. Juhl Energy has tried to identify these forward-looking statements by using words and phrases such as "may," "will," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "plan," "should," "typical," "preliminary," "hope," or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to Juhl Energy and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause Juhl Energy's actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements and specifically those statements referring to any specific projects, prospective acquisitions and wind farm assets mentioned herein.  These risks are referenced in Juhl Energy's current 10K or as may be described from time to time in Juhl Energy's subsequent SEC filings; and such factors as incorporated by reference.

SOURCE Juhl Energy, Inc.