MicroPlanet Announces Multi-Year, Multi-Million Dollar Licensing Agreement

• Announces investor conference call on Tuesday, November 13 at 4:30 pm (ET)
  
  

Company: MicroPlanet Technology Corp.
Stock Listing: TSXV - MP
Stock Listing (US): OTC - MCTYF
Web Site: www.microplanet.com

SEATTLE, WA, Nov. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - MicroPlanet Technology Corp. ("MicroPlanet" or the "Company"), (TSXV - MP & OTC - MCTYF) (www.microplanet.com), a smart-grid energy conservation and power quality company is pleased to announce that it has signed a multi-million dollar formal licensing agreement with Tyree Industries Pty Ltd. (Tyree) of Australia.

Tyree (www.tyree.com.au) is Australia's predominant manufacturer of distribution and power transformers, with just under 50 percent of the national distribution transformer market in Australia. Utilizing MicroPlanet's advanced electronics, Tyree and MicroPlanet will produce a new-generation transformer that combines the benefits of smart voltage regulation with distribution transformers. The Regformer™ will ensure improved power quality at a consistent pre-set voltage, seamlessly integrating renewable energy back into the grid with bi-directional regulation. Prototype testing is expected to begin at the Tyree Energy Technologies Building (https://www.venuesandevents.unsw.edu.au/venues/TETB.html ) at the University of New South Wales in late 2012, with sales to ramp up in the second quarter of next year.

The formal licensing agreement provides Tyree with exclusive rights to use MicroPlanet technologies for integration with transformers for Australia, New Zealand and the Australasian islands. The agreement provides MicroPlanet with compensation for every Regformer™ sold based on sales margins. The rights renew indefinitely based on minimum annual license fees to MicroPlanet. The minimum fees are based on fixed unit quantities but may be adjusted to reflect actual sales margins, and will be negotiated for future years.

The minimum license fees for the first three years are:

"This deal is a monumental achievement for MicroPlanet as a company, and I believe we are just getting started," said Brett Ironside, President and CEO of MicroPlanet. "We are very excited to work with Tyree on the new Regformer^TM technology, which we believe will be a game changer in the energy world."

The Australian government initiated incentives for solar energy in 2008.  Since then, Australians have embraced solar energy enthusiastically, with some of the highest uptake of kilowatt-scale solar photovoltaic (Solar PV) in the world. This has created a dilemma for electricity distributors, currently resulting in the rejection of many new installations. The Regformer^TM removes the most significant barriers for the adoption of renewable energy sources, which are commonly limited now below 20 percent of line capacity.  By comparison, MicroPlanet last year managed the Solar Decathlon site for the US Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Labs with Solar PV which averaged 74 percent penetration. The Regformer™ could fundamentally change the way utility engineers design and operate their distribution networks.

"The accessibility of solar and wind energy technology and the Australian Government's extraordinary commitment to carbon neutrality has resulted in the rapid deployment of generated renewable energy. The integration of these renewable resources have had a major impact on local grids which are struggling to keep up with managing the variable generation of solar cells on the feeder lines," said Michael Stack, General Manager and Technical Lead, Tyree. "In many locations consumers are being told that they cannot install or connect their Solar PV. We expect our utility clients will enthusiastically adopt this new product as quickly as we can get it to market. Additionally our industrial and mining sectors are growing very quickly here and we also see a large potential for this product for these customers."

MicroPlanet and Tyree have also jointly applied to the Australian government's Clean Technology Innovation Program to help accelerate the design and deployment of the Regformer^TM, reflecting the critical need for this technology to help achieve Australian targets for both distributed renewable energy and carbon reductions. Tyree and MicroPlanet are both familiar players on the Australian landscape. MicroPlanet's low voltage regulators are used by Essential Energy of New South Wales, Ergon Energy of Queensland, ETSA Utilities of South Australia, and Powercor in Victoria to maintain power quality across a wide range of climatic and operating conditions. MicroPlanet and the implementation of its products by Ergon Energy in Australia were recently the topic of a study published in Australasian Power Technologies Transmission & Distribution (http://www.flipemag.com.au/APT/eMagT%26D_issue4_2012).

"The past few years have presented significant challenges for MicroPlanet that required us to refine, validate, certify, and prepare our technology for scale deployment," said Ironside. "I want to acknowledge the dedication of all our employees - most of whom have taken shares in lieu of wages this year - to the MicroPlanet technology and the global benefits of energy efficiency. I am very excited for them and for all our shareholders as our company starts to capitalize on their significant investments. We will work hard on commercial market opportunities afforded by our recent product safety certifications, as we simultaneously look for more partners and licensing opportunities in other regions throughout the world."

MicroPlanet will hold a live conference call to discuss this announcement and answer questions on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 4:30 pm ET.

To access the conference call by phone within Canada and the U.S. the toll-free number is 1-800-319-4610. Outside Canada and the U.S., dial 1-604-638-5340. (Callers should dial in 5 to 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time).

Management will accept questions by telephone and e-mail. Questions can be forwarded in advance or during the conference call to [email protected] and may be posed live by dialing one of the above numbers and pressing *1 on a touch-tone phone.

About MicroPlanet
MicroPlanet's smart grid energy management solutions improve power quality and save energy by regulating incoming voltage to a home or business with patented power electronics.  Its technology has been deployed in eight countries by more than twenty utilities, the U.S. military and numerous commercial customers to save energy, improve power quality and grid efficiency, and to facilitate the integration of renewable energy sources including solar and wind.  MicroPlanet is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V), trading under the stock symbol MP. www.microplanet.com

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SOURCE MicroPlanet Technology Corp.