From Pipelines to PowerLines: The Secret “Toll Booth” of Energy Returns

Disseminated on behalf of Solar Bank Corp (NASDAQ:SUNN)

Fossil fuels had their day.
The profit wave has crested, and the future belongs elsewhere.
But the blueprint that built those fortunes is still thriving—and “The Professor” Dr. Richard Lu knows it.
In 2000, before moving to Toronto Hydro - Richard was an executive at Enbridge, the energy giant.
The company launched a half-century earlier as a single 500-mile oil pipeline in a remote part of Canada.
Plenty of companies at the time hoped to make it big off of new oil & gas discoveries. But Enbridge dove headlong into vertical integration, cutting off competitors at every pass.
They grew into the largest pipeline network in North America, expanding into natural gas processing and storage—eventually earning billions in quarterly profits.
And in 2013, Richard Lu launched his own version of the energy giant for the 21st century—SolarBank (NASDAQ:SUUN).
Enbridge and Toronto Hydro built essential energy delivery infrastructure for industry. SolarBank is building critical power infrastructure to help support the digital economy.
Enbridge is a behemoth—one whose legacy business can’t keep pace with the future that’s unfolding.
SolarBank is the new face of energy—and is on track to become a powerful and profitable company.
Of course, many companies are trying to build out solar projects. Very few of them will be successful in the long term.
But SolarBank has an unbeatable advantage: the energy giant’s playbook. They’ve been executing on it for the past decade, and it’s on the verge of paying off.
If Richard Lu has his way, SolarBank will be the energy giant of this century.

The company started as the developer of a few small but profitable solar projects, learning the mechanics of buildouts.
They learned how to secure sites, run economics on them, hold public meetings, get permits, and—crucially—secure interconnections.
Instead of building in someone else’s direction, SolarBank takes full ownership. It’s an approach that ensures control over costs, engineering, and returns. Projects delivered on time and on budget.
This allows SolarBank to:

Once the project is complete— on time and within budget—they sell it.
Of course, large companies don’t want to manage it, so they hire SolarBank to perform operations and maintenance (O&M).
The end-to-end integration means that SolarBank has best-in-market quality control.
And that’s what they sell to their clients: certainty at speed and scale. Fortune 500 clients find that irresistible.

Most importantly, vertical integration means SolarBank makes money from before the first shovel-turn until the end of life for the solar panel.
SolarBank isn’t quite done with full top-to-bottom vertical integration, though. And the last piece of the puzzle is the holy grail of solar companies.

The Pipeline of the Future

In March 2023, SolarBank IPO’d to immediate success.
It was added to the CSE25 index—representing the 25 largest companies on the stock exchange. SolarBank was the only renewable energy company on the index.
By contrast to the broader solar market, which has gone sideways in 2025, SolarBank is up 76% already in 2025.
That’s the power of vertical integration in a strong company.
But its IPO was not just to raise cash. It was to integrate the final phase of solar: becoming an independent power producer (IPP)—selling the power produced by new projects.
Enbridge made its real money charging tolls for the oil that passed through its pipelines. SolarBank aims to do the same with electricity—owning and operating every solar asset.
They’ve developed the expertise by developing solar for others. Now it’s time to build it for themselves, lease it out, and reap the high profit margins.
To that end, SolarBank acquired one of the companies it had built many of the projects for—Solar Flow-Through Funds—in July 2024.
That immediately added approximately $10 million in recurring revenue through existing IPP contracts.

Starting with small, profitable ventures, they’ve since built hundreds of solar projects totaling $100M in value...
And they have a massive, 1GW+ pipeline of projects in the works—

And like Enbridge before it, SolarBank wants to control the entire value chain, from site selection to power generation.
Enbridge rode the fossil-fuel boom to become a $100B empire.
SolarBank’s wave is the $35 trillion clean energy transition—and it’s only just begun.
Of course, every project comes with challenges. SolarBank still has to navigate permits and interconnection approvals, secure financing, and manage potential battery and solar panel degradation over time.
Shifting government policies on incentives could also pose risks.
SolarBank has a 10+ year track record managing these risks and it is well positioned for the future.
Regards,
Marin Katusa and the KR Special Situations Team

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