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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10-K

For the fiscal year ended: December 31, 2010

For the transition period from                 to                

Commission file number 001-16265

LIME ENERGY CO.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code (847) 437-1666

Securities registered under Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act:

Securities registered under Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act:  None

Indicate by checkmark if the registrant is a well-know seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes o  No x

Indicate by checkmark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes o  No x

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x  No o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes o  No o

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. o

Indicate by checkmark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).  Yes o  No x

The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates was $41,813,648 based on the reported last sale price of common stock on June 30, 2010, which was the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter.  For purposes of this computation, all executive officers, directors and 10% stockholders were deemed affiliates. Such a determination should not be construed as an admission that such executive officers, directors or 10% stockholders are affiliates.

As of March 8, 2011, there were 23,804,776 shares of common stock, $0.0001 par value, of the registrant issued and outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement relating to its 2011 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, to be filed within 120 days after registrant’s fiscal year end of December 31, 2010, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K where indicated.

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Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

This annual report contains “forward-looking” information within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, adopted pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 which reflect our current views with respect to, among other things, future events.  Statements that are not purely historical may be forward-looking. You can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “hope,” “intend,” “may,” “project,” “plan,”  “should,” “outlook,” “potential,” continues,” “future” and similar expressions, including when used in the negative.

Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements, including but not limited to those described under “Risk Factors,” as well as, among others, the following:

·                                          implementation of our operating and growth strategy;

·                                          the loss, or renewal on less favorable terms, of management contracts;

·                                          development of new, competitive energy efficiency services;

·                                          changes in federal and state regulations including those affecting energy efficiency tax credits and the energy efficiency industry;

·                                          a significant decrease in the cost of energy leading to a decrease in the demand for energy efficiency services;

·                                          our ability to consummate transactions and integrate newly acquired contracts into our operations; and

·                                          availability, terms and employment of capital.

Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable and achievable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that the actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including matters described in this annual report, including the sections titled “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our financial statements and notes thereto.

Except as otherwise required by federal securities laws, we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update, review or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or any other reason.

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PART I

Item 1.                                        Business.

Overview

We are a leading provider of integrated energy engineering, consulting and implementation solutions focused on assisting our clients in the achievement of their energy efficiency goals.  We operate in three specific markets: the commercial and industrial market, the public sector market, and the utility market.  Our clients include commercial and industrial businesses, property owners and managers, utilities, energy service companies (“ESCOs”), government entities and educational institutions.  We focus on deploying solutions to improve building energy efficiency, reduce energy-related expenditures and the impact of energy use on the environment.  Our solutions include energy efficient lighting upgrades, energy efficient mechanical and electrical retrofit and upgrade services, water conservation, building weatherization and renewable project development and implementation.  We provide energy efficiency solutions across a range of facilities, from high-rise office buildings, distribution facilities, manufacturing plants, retail sites, mixed use complexes, large government sites to small, local facilities.

We believe the following factors continue to drive demand for energy efficiency services in the U.S. commercial and industrial, public sector and utility markets:

·                  the potential for immediate return on investment and demonstrable long-term cost savings resulting from the installation of energy efficient solutions;

·                  concerns regarding the substantial and volatile cost of energy, the adverse implication of global climate change and the desire for energy independence;

·                  increasing regulatory pressures on utilities to include energy efficiency and renewable energy in their resource plans;

·                  the availability of rebates and tax incentives both at a federal and state level for organizations that reduce their energy consumption;

·                  existing and prospective government mandates to improve the efficiency of federal facilities;

·                  increasing pressure on corporations to establish and attain sustainability goals; and

·                  the migration towards a low-carbon economy which will potentially place a price or tax on the carbon emissions of our clients.

We offer our clients a full range of services to address their energy efficiency goals based on our ability to identify and deliver significant returns on our clients’ investments, improve the quality of their physical workspaces, maximize their operational savings and reduce their maintenance costs.  Our turnkey services include:

·                  Energy Consulting and Technical Services:  We apply our engineering expertise to analyze each client’s energy consumption and operational needs and develop customized energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions.  Our energy engineering and consulting services include sustainability consulting, energy auditing, energy master planning, project development services, design engineering and facility retro-commissioning.  We also provide design review and analysis of new construction projects to maximize energy efficiency and sustainability, project management of energy-related construction, and processing and procurement of incentive and rebate applications.

·                  Implementation:  We provide complete turnkey implementation services for a range of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, including energy efficient lighting upgrades, energy

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efficiency mechanical and electrical retrofit and upgrade services, water conservation, weatherization and renewable project development and implementation, including solar, biomass and geothermal.  We consider factors such as current facility infrastructure, best available technologies, building environmental conditions, hours of operation, energy costs, available utility rebates, tax incentives, and installation, operation and maintenance costs of various efficiency alternatives.  Our professionals’ extensive knowledge in energy efficiency solutions enables us to apply the most appropriate, effective and proven technologies available in the marketplace.

·                  Energy Asset Development and Management:  We leverage our engineering, implementation and project finance experience and capabilities to provide energy asset development and management services to our clients who wish to benefit from alternative and/or renewable energy sources.  In this role we serve two sets of clients: the energy consumer and investors.  For the energy consumer, we perform project feasibility assessments, evaluate alternative technologies, estimate economic returns, arrange debt and equity financing, manage the design and construction process, and operate the asset under a long-term power purchase agreement.  For our investor clients, we source, qualify and structure investment opportunities to maximize risk-adjusted returns, then manage the design and construction process and operate the assets under long-term power purchase agreements.  In some limited situations, we take equity positions in these investments.

We serve a wide range of commercial, industrial, utility and public sector clients.  Our commercial and industrial clients include many Fortune 500 companies for which we provide our energy efficiency solutions directly.  We also work for a number of utilities for which we manage or operate under their energy demand-side management programs.  Our public sector clients include federal, state and local government agencies and educational institutions, which we serve through our relationships with ESCOs and directly.  ESCOs are awarded project contracts with public sector clients, we assist the ESCOs by providing energy efficiency expertise to develop and implement tailored solutions under these contracts.  In addition we also work directly for public sector clients when the services of an ESCO are not required.

History and Business Development

On December 5, 1997, we were formed as Electric City LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, for the purpose of marketing a line of lighting controllers (which we marketed under the EnergySaver name).  On June 5, 1998, we changed from a limited liability company into a corporation by merging Electric City LLC into Electric City Corp., a Delaware corporation. Trading in our common stock commenced on August 14, 1998 on the OTC Bulletin Board.

In June 2006 we established our Energy Efficiency Services business through the acquisition of Parke P.A.N.D.A. Corporation (“Parke”).  Parke is an energy services provider specializing in the design, engineering and installation of energy efficient lighting upgrades for commercial and industrial users.  During 2006 and 2007 we expanded this business through the acquisition of several other small energy engineering and implementation providers focused on the commercial and industrial markets.

On September 13, 2006 we changed our name to Lime Energy Co. to reflect our new Energy Efficiency Services focus.  Lime is an acronym for Less is More Efficient, which reflects our focus on reducing energy consumption.

In December 2006 we discontinued the active marketing of our original product, EnergySaver, due to changes in lighting technology, which in our view limited the future market for the product.

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On February 25, 2008, our stock began trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the trading symbol “LIME.”

In June 2008, we acquired Applied Energy Management, Inc. (“AEM”).  AEM provides energy engineering and consulting services and energy efficiency services similar to our existing energy efficiency lighting solutions.  In addition, it provided mechanical and electrical conservation services, water conservation services and renewable energy solutions primarily for government and municipal facilities through its ESCO partners.

In August 2009, we sold the assets of Maximum Performance Group, Inc. (“MPG”) which comprised our Energy Technology business.

During 2009, we established our utility services business and in late 2009 we won our first contract to provide utility demand-side management services.

Products and Services

Energy Consulting and Technical Services

The Energy Consulting and Technical Services business unit provides consulting, engineering and program management and implementation services for clients in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainability.  We utilize our technical expertise to help Lime’s clients meet their goals for energy use reduction, energy cost savings and carbon management.  Our clients are in a wide variety of sectors, including utilities, institutional, governmental, commercial and industrial.  Our services include:

·                  Utility Program Management and Implementation — we provide utilities with a single point solution for delivering energy efficiency resources.  Our wide range of services includes program design, program management, marketing & customer recruitment, auditing and installation of energy conservation measures. We assist our utility clients to meet state mandated Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS), stimulating local economies, creating green jobs and making significant reduction to the environmental impacts of utility operations.

·                  Energy Project Development — our team of engineers are the first line in the development of turnkey design-build energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.  They conduct building energy audits, analyze energy consumption data, and perform financial analyses of various energy conservation alternatives.

·                  Energy Engineering — we perform energy audits of clients’ facilities including building modeling, alternative analysis and preliminary design review.  Our deliverables include preliminary assessments, detailed audits and investment grade audits.

·                  Consulting — we provide all of the planning and technical execution for our clients’ building portfolio, including solutions for energy procurement, energy usage, on-site generation and accessing incentives and grants for energy projects.  Services include retro-commissioning and LEED consulting.

·                  Energy Master Planning — we are a single source solution to the myriad issues that our clients face in the areas of energy and sustainability.  Among other things, our energy master plans consider energy efficiency, renewable energy, energy procurement, carbon management, incentives, rebates and grants.  We help our clients to make sense of these diverse areas and develop a clear path for the low-carbon economy.

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Implementation

We provide in-house, turnkey implementation services to deliver our energy efficiency solutions to our clients. Historically, most of our engineering and consulting services work has resulted in repeat revenue from the same client in the form of implementation of multiple energy efficiency solutions, additional engineering work or expansion of the work to additional client facilities.  Our comprehensive suite of energy efficiency implementation services includes:

·                  Lighting Upgrade Services. Our designs incorporate occupancy sensors, light harvesting, time clock controllers and IP addressable systems that facilitate control of individual fixtures for maximum energy savings.  As part of our services, we seek to determine the best lighting solutions for our clients or, in the case where our client is an energy service company, for their client to achieve targeted financial return metrics and technical specifications. These lighting solutions take into consideration factors such as light and heat level requirements, building environmental conditions, hours of operation, energy costs, available utility and tax incentives, as well as installation, operating and maintenance costs of various lighting. Based on these factors, we upgrade the existing lighting system with a new system, custom configured with components from third-party manufacturers.

·                  Mechanical and Electrical Conservation Services.  Our mechanical and electrical conservation services include the development, design, analysis, implementation and commissioning of mechanical and electrical efficiency projects at our client’s facilities. Mechanical projects utilize technology to increase the efficiency of HVAC systems. Heating technologies decrease energy consumption through the use of steel and sectional boilers, and more efficient burners with dual fuel technologies to take advantage of fuel switching opportunities and economizers to reduce exhaust gas temperatures.  Cooling technologies provide more efficient water or air cooled chillers, air handling equipment, roof top units, split systems and packaged equipment.  Other mechanical projects include heat recovery, air compressor staging and upgrades.  Electrical projects involve motor replacements, use of variable frequency drives, automated control systems and power factor correction and require regional installation and technical support.

·                  Water Conservation Services. Our water conservation services include the development, analysis, specification and installation of water reduction technologies into a client’s facility.  Technologies include dual flush toilets, waterless urinals, low flow aerators for sinks and shower heads and water reclamation.  In addition to reduced water costs, other benefits include lower sewer costs, domestic hot water expenses and carbon emissions from reduced water heating costs. Additionally, less waste reduces sewage treatment costs and environmental impact.

·                  Weatherization Services. Our weatherization services optimize energy efficiency and reduce consumption by protecting the exterior and interior of facilities from sunlight, precipitation and wind.   Specific services we offer include sealing bypasses (cracks, gaps, holes), installing insulation, protecting pipes from corrosion and freezing, installing storm doors and windows and replacing old drafty doors and windows with low-energy, double-glazed windows.

·                  Renewable Project Development and Implementation.  We have extensive in-house renewable expertise, including development of a biomass gasification plant.  We have also installed a new solar domestic hot water and photovoltaic system consisting of parabolic solar dishes, heat exchangers and a computerized solar dish tracking system, and we have recently completed a closed loop water/glycol geothermal heat pump system for a public housing development.  In each case we have worked closely with ESCOs to review the proposed technologies, analyze proposed system performance, design custom solutions and build to budget.

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Asset Development and Management:

We leverage our engineering and implementation capabilities and experience to provide energy asset development and management services to our clients who wish to benefit from alternative and/or renewable energy sources.  In this role we serve two sets of clients: the energy consumer and investors.  Our services in this area include:

·                  Project feasibility and technology assessment.  We utilize our extensive engineering, construction and financial experience to review and analyze the feasibility of constructing, financing, structuring and operating prospective energy projects utilizing available alterative technologies in a way that will meet our clients’ objectives for the project.

·                  Sourcing, qualifying and structuring investment opportunities.  We utilize our internal business development resources as well as extensive network of industry contacts to identify opportunities to invest in energy projects.  These opportunities may be with existing customers or prospective customers or may involve responses to requests for proposals.  Once we identify an opportunity we evaluate the risks and feasibility of structuring and implementing the project within our investor clients’ guidelines.  If the project meets all our criteria, we will negotiate and structure all the associated agreements on our client’s behalf.

·                  Project financing.  We will arrange long-term financing for the project once all the rights have been secured.

·                  Design and construction process management.  We utilize our expertise in energy engineering and project management to oversee the design and construction of the energy asset on our client’s behalf.  We attempt to utilize the services of other areas of Lime to self perform this design and/or construction whenever feasible.

·                  Asset management.  Once a project is complete, we manage and operate the asset for our client under a long-term asset management agreement.

In some limited situations, we may take equity positions in alternative and/or renewable energy assets.  In 2010, we acquired the gas rights to the Zemel Road landfill in Punta Gorda, Florida with the intention of building a 4.2 megawatt landfill gas to electricity generating facility on the site.  We made this investment to establish ourselves in the asset development and management business and because we believe that this investment will generate consistent long-term revenue and earnings and deliver a strong return to our stockholders.

We believe we have a national presence in all the key states which have instituted mandates and initiatives to support facility energy efficiency  and renewable energy projects.  We have approximately 400 employees in 19 offices across 10 states.  Our offices are staffed with professionals who have significant expertise in facility energy efficiency engineering and consulting and the implementation of a wide range of related technologies for both the commercial and industrial and the public sector markets.  We are able to maintain a highly scalable and leveragable platform by deploying our professional employees to work on projects in either market based on our work requirements and local end client needs.

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Sales and Marketing

Commercial and Industrial

As of December 31, 2010, we employed a sales force comprised of 45 sales personnel operating out of 19 offices across the country.  Our sales force is organized into teams and is compensated based on the revenues generated by each team in addition to a base salary.  We actively pursue new talent and have been successful in hiring sales personnel with highly-relevant industry expertise as well as training sales personnel who are new to the industry.  Our sales force has experienced low turnover and we believe is positioned to handle our expected growth.

We expect to continue to have significant new business opportunities with our existing clients and to generate business from new clients through a combination of referrals, trade shows and cold calls.  We employ a sophisticated proposal system combining proposal-generation software and a proprietary database based on our many years of experience in the energy efficiency business.

The extensive training and education of our sales force is a key to our success.  Our sales force attends national and regional meetings each year where they review our sales model and our senior engineering team provides details on the latest technologies available in the energy efficiency solutions market.  Our sales force receives regular updates on our expanded service offerings, the latest available rebate incentives and financing sources.

We have established a clearly defined sales approach designed to shorten sales cycles, increase closing rates and help forecast future sales.

In addition to our sales group, we employ three full-time and two part-time marketing personnel focusing on vertical market segments directly targeting our potential clients’ industries.

Public Sector

We work on public sector energy efficiency projects through our ESCO relationships and on a direct basis with public sector entities.  Our sales and development efforts to the public sector are focused on supporting and building relationships with ESCOs, responding to requests for proposals issued by public entities when the services of an ESCO are not required and developing opportunities with public institutions that are not potential customers for our ESCO partners.  We have positioned ourselves in these markets as a supplier of a comprehensive set of products and services to the end user.  We believe that the combination of energy engineering and consulting expertise and regional implementation capabilities will contribute to continued growth in this sector.  We believe there are few competitors that can provide a comparable depth of energy efficiency solutions over a similar range of geographies.

Utility Sales

We have a team that is dedicated to developing and responding to opportunities to expand our utility services business.  This team markets directly to utilities that are prospects for demand-side management programs and attend industry conferences to explain our capabilities and review our successes.  We believe that the biggest selling point for our utility services is our track record of exceeding the goals placed upon us under the contracts we were awarded in New York and New Jersey.

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Clients

During 2010, Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. (aka National Grid), a customer of our utility program management business, represented approximate 17% of our consolidated billings, while during 2009, Honeywell International, Inc. and Johnson Controls, Inc., both ESCOs, each accounted for approximately 15% of our consolidated revenue.  No other customer exceeded 10% of our consolidated revenue during these periods.

Competition

Commercial and Industrial

The market for energy efficiency solutions is highly fragmented.  We face competition mainly from companies only offering a sub-set of our offerings, such as lighting or mechanical and electrical conservation services.  Most of these competitors are local businesses which are only able to offer services in the immediate area or have a limited specific vertical product expertise, such as lighting and lighting fixture manufacturers, lighting fixture distributors and providers of energy efficiency upgrades and maintenance.  We believe we are the only national provider of a full range of energy efficiency services consisting of energy engineering, consulting and implementation services.  Our extensive experience and track record, national scale, leadership in providing comprehensive best-of-breed technologies and services and our established base of clients creates significant barriers to entry, providing us with a significant advantage when competing for commercial and industrial clients.

Public Sector

The market for energy efficiency services for public sector facilities is primarily served by ESCOs, who enter into energy efficiency service contracts with public sector entities.  Once ESCOs have secured contracts, they often hire energy efficiency service providers to act as a subcontractor to help them design and/or implement specific services in relation to a given project.  We compete with other energy efficiency services providers to be the chosen partner for these ESCOs projects.  We believe that while historically ESCOs often considered small, local providers, increasingly ESCOs are looking to consolidate their relationships with a smaller group of preferred providers to act for them on a national scale across the full range of energy efficiency services.  We believe the competing energy efficiency partners who target ESCO work are primarily small, private players that lack our reputation, technical capabilities and national scale.

In late 2009 we entered into our first direct contract with a government agency when we assumed the rights under a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to act as one of three qualified contractors under its Facilities Repair and Renewal program (“FRR”).  Under this program we bid as a design build general contractor to the Corps of Engineers.  We have won three contracts worth approximately $15 million under the FRR program since becoming a qualified contractor.   Subsequent to this, we were awarded several contracts with the U.S. Post Office to perform energy efficiency upgrades on postal facilities on the east coast, and in the southeast, southwest and Great Lakes regions.  During 2010, we also won business from a northeast hospital to implement comprehensive energy efficiency upgrades.   We believe that there will be other opportunities in the future to contract directly with the government and quasi-government agencies where the agency does not require the services of one of our ESCO partners.

Utility Program Management

Utility demand-side management programs have existed for more than 20 years in the U.S., primarily in northeast and west coast states.  Companies have been providing various forms of management services to utilities for these programs since their inception.  Traditionally these suppliers

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have been large consulting firms that design the programs for the utility and/or provide program administration.  In most cases they set up a network of trade ally contractors that are trained in the incentive program details, and these contractors develop and implement the projects at utility customers’ facilities.  As more states have adopted energy efficiency portfolio standards (EEPS) that include aggressive goals for utilities, along with penalties for failing to meet the goals, utilities are increasingly looking at the direct install implementation method — which traditionally has been used to access hard-to-reach markets such as residential and small commercial & industrial.

Utilities that have not historically utilized demand-side management programs have begun to implement them and utilities that have used these programs in the past are looking to expand them.  In some states this is driven by the need to achieve these EEPS goals, while other states have mechanisms for the utilities to earn a profit by implementing these programs.  As the demand for these programs has grown, new players have entered the market to supply various forms of services to support the programs.  These new competitors include primarily smaller regional engineering firms and regional electrical and mechanical contractors.

Our focus has been on assisting utilities promote energy efficiency to the small business market through small business direct install programs.  We feel that our capabilities in marketing, engineering, energy auditing, project management and installation, in combination with the IT platform we have developed to support these activities, permits us to efficiently and effectively deliver the energy efficiency goals of these utilities.  We believe that this has been demonstrated by the success we have achieved on our first two utility contracts, where our performance exceeded our goals and far exceeded the performance of any competitor.

We expect that competition in this market will continue to increase as the number and size of utility programs increases.  However, we believe that we are well positioned to compete for and win additional utility contracts in the future because of our combination of capabilities and track record of success.

Asset Development and Management

There are many entities in the U.S. that develop and manage energy producing assets, from the largest utilities, municipalities and ESCOs to equipment suppliers and individual entrepreneurs.  We have chosen to focus on the development and management of projects that typically fall below the minimum project size for the larger, more active players in this market.  This end of the market has historically been serviced by entities that have had difficulty obtaining capital to complete projects and don’t have the depth or breadth of skills that we possess in areas such as engineering, finance, project management and/or construction.  While a portion of our business will result from responses to requests for proposals that are generally open to any qualified bidder, we believe that a significant portion of our business will come from existing or prospective customers of other areas within our Company, which should be generally less competitive in nature.

The other area of competition in this market is the competition for capital.  Typically the returns generated by the types of assets we plan to develop are largely driven by tax attributes, including accelerated depreciation, production tax credits and investment tax credits.  Even if we become profitable within the near future, as we believe we will, we have significant net operating tax loss carry forwards that will negate or greatly reduce the value of these tax attributes for us for some period of time.  We will therefore be seeking investors who can take advantage of these tax benefits to provide equity for our projects.  We will be competing with other investment alternatives for this capital as well as with other developers of energy assets.

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Compliance with Environmental Laws

Our sale of products and services generally does not require compliance with federal, state or local environmental laws.  Our implementation services use licensed disposal firms to dispose of old lamps, lighting ballasts or other products that may contain heavy metals or other potential environmental hazards.

Intellectual Property

As of December 31, 2010, we had three registered trademarks or service marks and one copyright.

Employees

As of March 1, 2011, we had 270 full time employees and 94 part time or temporary employees, of which 75 were management and corporate staff, 13 were engineers, 63 were engaged in sales, sales support or marketing and 213 were engaged in project management, product installation, customer support and field service.

Item 1A.                                Risk Factors.

Risks Related to our Business

We have a limited operating history under our current business model in a rapidly evolving market, which may make it difficult to evaluate our business and prospects, and may expose us to increased risks and uncertainties.

Our business has evolved substantially over time through organic growth and strategic acquisitions.  Our current business model has only been in operation since June 2006, when we launched our Energy Efficiency Services business in the commercial and industrial market. Accordingly, we have only a limited history of generating revenues under our current business model, and the future revenue potential of our current business model in the rapidly evolving energy efficiency solutions market is uncertain. As a result of our short operating history under our current business model, we have limited financial data that can be used to evaluate our business, strategies, performance and prospects or an investment in our common stock. Any evaluation of our business and our prospects must be considered in light of our limited operating history under our current business model and the risks and uncertainties encountered by companies with new business models. To address these risks and uncertainties, among other things, we must do the following:

·                  maintain and expand our current relationships and develop new relationships with commercial and industrial businesses, property owners and managers, utilities, government agencies and energy service companies, or “ESCOs,” serving government and educational institutions;

·                  maintain and enhance our existing energy efficiency solutions;

·                  execute our business and marketing strategies successfully;

·                  attract, integrate, retain and motivate qualified personnel; and

·                  respond to competitive developments.

We may be unable to accomplish one or more of these objectives, which could cause our business to suffer and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial

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condition. In addition, accomplishing many of these goals might be very expensive, which could adversely impact our operating results and financial condition. Additionally, any predictions about our future operating results may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history under our current business model.

We have incurred significant operating losses since inception and may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future.

We have experienced annual losses and negative cash flow from operations since our inception and we currently have an accumulated deficit. We must increase sales while maintaining or improving our margins to operate profitably and sustain positive operating cash flows. We may be required to reduce the prices of our services in order to increase sales. If we reduce prices, we may not be able to reduce costs sufficiently to achieve acceptable profit margins. As we strive to grow our business, we have spent and expect to continue to spend significant funds for: (i) general corporate purposes, including working capital, marketing, recruiting and hiring additional personnel; and (ii) acquisitions. To the extent that our revenues do not increase as quickly as these costs and expenditures, our results of operations and liquidity will be adversely affected. If we experience slower than anticipated revenue growth or if the gross margins we earn on our sales are lower than expected or our operating expenses exceed our expectations, we may not achieve profitability in the future or if we achieve profitability in the future, we may not be able to sustain it.  As we grow, our working capital requirements are likely to increase.  We may need to increase the size of our bank working capital line to support this increased working capital.  If in the future we cannot obtain additional bank financing it could limit our ability to grow our business to the point that it is profitable on a consistent basis.

In addition, because of our negative cash flow, we have funded our operations through the issuance of common and preferred stock and debt. Our ability to continue to operate until our cash flow turns positive on a consistent basis may depend on our ability to continue to raise additional funds through the issuance of equity or debt. If we are not successful in raising any needed additional funds, we might have to significantly scale back or delay our growth plans, or sell or shut down some of our businesses. Any reduction or delay in our growth plans could materially adversely affect our ability to compete in the marketplace, take advantage of business opportunities and develop or enhance our services and technologies, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The recent widespread economic downturn and uncertainty and turmoil in the equity and credit markets could adversely impact our clients, diminish the demand for our services and products, and harm our operations and financial performance.

The energy efficiency solutions marketplace has experienced rapid evolution and growth, but the recent economic recession has increased the reluctance of some of our commercial and industrial customers to invest in energy efficiency projects, even those that offer strong ROIs.  We are not sure if conditions in this market will worsen or improve during coming months or how customers will react as the economy continues its recovery. The recession also may cause reductions or elimination of utility or government energy efficiency incentive programs used to partially fund the costs of customer projects. In addition, increased competition as a result of the recession may result in lower sales, reduced likelihood of profitability, and diminished cash flow to us.

Further, the sales of our energy efficiency solutions are made on the basis of contracts that often permit our customers to terminate the engagement prior to completion rather than long-term purchase commitments and consequently our clients may cancel, delay or otherwise modify their purchase commitments in response to economic pressures with little or no consequence to them and with little or no notice to us. Whether in response to an economic downturn affecting an industry or a client’s specific

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business including its bankruptcy or insolvency, any cancellation, delay or other modification in our clients’ orders could significantly reduce our revenue, impact our working capital, cause our operating results to fluctuate from period to period and make it more difficult for us to predict our revenue.

It is difficult for us to estimate our future quarterly operating results.

A significant portion of our revenue is seasonal. Historically, this seasonality has caused our revenue, operating income, net income and cash flow from operating activities to be lower in the first two quarters and higher in the last two quarters of each year. The concentration of earnings and cash flow in the fourth quarter is primarily due to our clients’ budget cycles.  Further, many of our clients purchase our energy efficiency solutions on the basis of cancellable short-term agreements for projects that can be completed in a matter of weeks rather than long-term purchase commitments.  Consequently, we do not have a constant and predictable stream of revenue from those clients.  Additionally, because a few large public sector projects are often responsible for a significant portion of our revenue, the level of activity, initial project delays or gaps between projects have historically led to significant fluctuations of revenue on an irregular basis throughout the fiscal year.  Also, many utility contracts are subject to changes in state budget allocations for the programs.  We have already experienced a situation where funds allocated for a program we were operating under were diverted to other uses with no warning, reducing our expected revenue under this program.  As a result, we may be unable to forecast our revenue accurately, and a failure to meet our revenue or expense forecasts could have an immediate and negative impact on the market price of our common stock.

We operate in a highly competitive industry and if we are unable to compete successfully our revenue and profitability will be adversely affected.

The energy efficiency solutions market is highly competitive, and we expect competition to increase and intensify as the energy efficiency solutions market continues to evolve. We face strong competition primarily from lighting and lighting fixture manufacturers, lighting fixture distributors, providers of energy efficiency lighting upgrades and maintenance, small regional providers of energy efficiency solutions and local electrical and mechanical contractors and engineering firms.  As we extend energy efficiency offerings that are currently available to our public sector clients to our commercial and industrial clients, we expect to face additional competition from providers of those services in the commercial and industrial market. We compete primarily on the basis of client service and support, quality and scope of services and products, cost of services and products, ability to service clients on a national level, name recognition and financial resources and performance track record for services provided.

In addition to our existing competitors, new competitors such as large national or multinational engineering and/or construction companies could enter our markets.  Many of these current and potential competitors are better capitalized than we are, have longer operating histories and strong existing client relationships, greater name recognition, and more extensive engineering and sales and marketing capabilities. Competitors could focus their substantial resources on developing a competing business model or energy efficiency solutions that may be potentially more attractive to clients than our products or services. In addition, we may face competition from other products or technologies that reduce demand for electricity. Our competitors may also offer energy efficiency solutions at reduced prices in order to improve their competitive positions. If our ESCO clients internally develop sufficient capabilities to perform their own work they may no longer outsource work to us.  Any of these competitive factors could make it more difficult for us to attract and retain clients, require us to lower our prices in order to remain competitive, and reduce our revenue and profitability, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

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We may be unable to obtain sufficient bonding capacity to support certain service offerings.

A significant number of our public sector contracts require surety bonds to guarantee our performance and payment to our suppliers and subcontractors. Bonding capacity for construction projects has become increasingly difficult to obtain, and bonding companies are denying or restricting coverage to an increasing number of contractors.  Some sureties in the past have required us to post collateral, guarantees, agreements of indemnity and letters of credit to secure the performance and surety bonds.  Our available collateral may be insufficient to support our increasing need for surety bonds, which could preclude us from being able to bid for certain contracts and successfully contract with certain customers. If we are unable to obtain surety bonds, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

Our success is largely dependent upon the skills, experience and efforts of our senior management and our ability to attract and retain highly qualified engineers and other skilled personnel, and the loss of their services or our inability to attract and retain such personnel could have a material adverse effect on our ability to expand our business or to maintain profitable operations.

Our future success will depend largely on the skills, efforts, and motivation of our executive officers and other senior managers.  The loss of the service of executive officers and other senior managers or our inability to attract or retain other qualified personnel could have a material adverse effect on our ability to expand our business, implement our strategy or maintain profitable operations.

In addition, to execute our growth strategy and maintain our margins, we must attract and retain highly qualified engineers, other skilled personnel and an effective sales force that can accurately price our clients’ energy efficiency solution contracts. Competition for hiring these individuals is intense, especially with regard to engineers specializing in the energy efficiency solutions market. If we fail to attract and retain highly qualified engineers and other skilled personnel, our business and growth prospects could be materially adversely affected.

We depend upon a limited number of clients in any given period to generate a substantial portion of our revenue.

Historically, we did not have long-term contracts with our clients, and our dependence on individual key clients varied from period to period as a result of the significant size of some of our retrofit and multi-facility projects.  During 2010, one client of our utility program management business accounted for approximately 17% of our consolidated revenue, while two ESCO clients accounted for approximately 30% of our consolidated 2009 revenue.  We expect utility program management and large retrofit projects to become a greater component of our total revenue in the near term. As a result, we may experience more client concentration in any given future period. The loss of, or substantial reduction in sales to, any of our significant clients could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition in any given future period.

Our public sector business depends on a limited number of ESCOs under contract by government and other public end-users.

A significant portion of our public sector business revenue is generated through our relationship with a limited number of ESCOs that provide energy efficiency services to government and other public end-users.  If for any reason government spending on energy efficiency services is reduced or postponed or government and other public end-users shift contracts to ESCOs with whom we do not have established relationships, this may have a significant negative impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.  Further, our public sector projects typically have long payment cycles

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that may impact our liquidity and which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations in any given future period.

Failure of our subcontractors to properly and effectively perform their services in a timely manner could cause delays in the delivery of our energy efficiency solutions.

Our success depends on our ability to provide quality, reliable energy efficiency solutions in a timely manner, which in part requires the proper removal and installation of lighting, mechanical and electrical systems and other products by our contractors and subcontractors upon which we depend.   A significant portion of our energy efficiency solutions are installed by contractors or subcontractors.  Any delays, malfunctions, inefficiencies or interruptions in our energy efficiency solutions caused by improper installation could cause us to have difficulty retaining current clients and attracting new clients.  Such delays could also result in additional costs that could affect the profit margin of our projects.  In addition, our brand, reputation and growth could be negatively impacted.

If we cannot find investors to provide the equity for projects to be developed by our new Asset Development and Management business the growth of this business will be limited.

We do not have sufficient capital to make significant investments in projects such as the Zemel Road landfill gas to electricity project, nor can we take advantage of the tax benefits generated by these types of investments.  Therefore, to continue to grow this business we will need to find third parties willing to provide the equity for these projects.  If we are unable to find such investors the future growth of this business will be limited.

If our information technology systems fail, or if we experience operation interruptions, then our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

The efficient operation of our business is dependent on our information technology systems. We rely on those systems generally to manage the day-to-day operation of our business, manage relationships with our clients and maintain our financial and accounting records. The failure of our information technology systems, our inability to successfully maintain and enhance our information technology systems, or any compromise of the integrity or security of the data we generate from our information technology systems, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, disrupt our business and make us unable, or severely limit our ability, to respond to client demands. In addition, our information technology systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from:

·              earthquake, fire, flood and other natural disasters;

·              employee or other theft;

·              attacks by computer viruses or hackers;

·              power outages; and

·              computer systems, Internet, telecommunications or data network failure.

Any interruption of our information technology systems could result in decreased revenue, increased expenses, increased capital expenditures, client dissatisfaction and potential lawsuits, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.

Product liability and personal injury claims could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We face exposure to product liability and personal injury claims in the event that our energy efficiency solutions fail to perform as expected or cause bodily injury or property damage.  Since the majority of our products use electricity, it is possible that the products we sell could result in injury,

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whether by product malfunctions, defects, improper installation or other causes. Particularly because the products we sell often incorporate new technologies or designs, we cannot predict whether or not product liability claims will be brought against us in the future or result in negative publicity about our business or materially adversely affect our client relations. Further, we face exposure to personal injury claims in the event that an individual is injured as a result of our negligence.   Moreover, we may not have adequate resources in the event of a successful claim against us. A successful product liability or personal injury claim against us that is not covered by insurance or is in excess of our available insurance limits could require us to make significant payments of damages which could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Our retrofitting process frequently involves responsibility for the removal and disposal of components containing hazardous materials and at times requires that our contractors or subcontractors work in hazardous conditions, either of which could give rise to a claim against us.

When we retrofit a client’s facility, we typically assume responsibility for removing and disposing of its existing lighting fixtures. Certain components of these fixtures typically contain trace amounts of mercury and other hazardous materials. Older components may also contain trace amounts of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. We utilize licensed and insured hazardous wastes disposal companies to dispose of such components. Failure to properly handle, remove or dispose of the components containing these hazardous materials in a safe, effective and lawful manner could give rise to liability for us, or could expose our workers or other persons to these hazardous materials, which could result in claims against us.  Further, our workers are sometimes required to work in hazardous environments that present a risk of serious personal injury which could result in claims against us.  A successful personal injury claim against us that is not covered by insurance or is in excess of our available insurance limits could require us to make significant payments of damages and could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

If we are unable to manage our anticipated revenue growth effectively, our operations and profitability could be adversely affected.

We intend to undertake a number of strategies in an effort to grow our revenue. If we are successful, our revenue growth may place significant strain on our current resources. To properly manage any future revenue growth, we must continue to improve our management, operational, administrative, accounting and financial reporting systems and expand, train and manage our employee base, which may involve significant expenditures and increased operating costs. Due to our limited resources and experience, we may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and adequately train additional qualified personnel. If we are unable to manage our anticipated revenue growth effectively, the quality of our client care may suffer, we may experience client dissatisfaction, reduced future revenue or increased warranty claims, and our expenses could substantially and disproportionately increase. Any of these circumstances could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our growth may be impaired and our current business may suffer if we do not successfully address risks associated with any future acquisitions that we may make.

Our future growth may depend, in part, upon our ability to successfully identify, acquire and operate other complementary businesses.  Any acquisition contemplated or completed by us may result in adverse short term effects on our reported results of operation; divert management’s attention; introduce risks associated with unanticipated problems or legal liabilities; cause the incurrence of additional debt; cause the issuance of additional equity; or introduce contingent liabilities and amortization expenses related to intangible assets, some or all of which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

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In addition, often an acquired company’s performance is largely dependent on a few key people, particularly in smaller companies.  If these key people leave the company, become less focused on the business or less motivated to make the business successful after the acquisition, the performance of the acquired company and our combined business may suffer.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards will be subject to additional limitation, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability.

Generally, a change of more than 50% in the ownership of a company’s stock, by value, over a three-year period constitutes an ownership change for U.S. federal income tax purposes. An ownership change may limit a company’s ability to use its net operating loss carry forwards attributable to the period prior to such change. We have sold or otherwise issued shares of our common stock in various transactions sufficient to constitute an ownership change, including our recently completed public offering and the conversion of our outstanding preferred stock and the conversion of all of our outstanding convertible notes.  As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change net operating loss carry forwards, which amounted to $92 million as of December 31, 2010, to offset U.S. federal taxable income will be subject to limitations, which will likely result in increased future tax liability.  In addition, future shifts in our ownership, including transactions in which we may engage, may cause additional ownership changes, which could have the effect of imposing additional limitations on our ability to use our pre-change net operating loss carry forwards.

Risks Related to Ownership of our Common Stock

The future trading market for our common stock may not be active on a consistent basis and the market price of our common stock could be subject to significant fluctuations.

Trading in our common stock has been limited and, at times, volatile since our shares were listed on The NASDAQ Capital Market in February 2008.  The trading volume of our common stock in the future depends in part on our ability to increase our revenue and reduce or eliminate our operating losses.  If we are unable to achieve these goals, the trading market for our common stock may be negatively affected, which may make it difficult for you to sell your shares.  An active trading market for our common stock may not develop or, if developed, be sustained, and the trading price of our common stock may fluctuate substantially.

The price of our common stock may also fluctuate as a result of:

·                  variations in our operating results;

·                  announcements by us, our competitors or others of significant business developments, changes in client relationships, acquisitions or expansion plans;

·                  analysts’ earnings estimates, ratings and research reports;

·                  the depth and liquidity of the market for our common stock;

·                  speculation in the press;

·                  strategic actions by us or our competitors, such as sales promotions or acquisitions;

·                  actions by institutional and other stockholders;

·                  recruitment or departure of key personnel; or

·                  domestic and international economic factors and trends, some of which may be unrelated to our performance.

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The stock markets, in general, periodically experience volatility that is sometimes unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies.  These broad market fluctuations may cause the trading price of our common stock to decline; in particular, you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the public offering price.

In the past, following a period of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company.  Because of the potential volatility of our common stock price, we may become the target of securities litigation in the future.  Securities litigation could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources from our business.

Due to the concentration of holdings of our stock, a limited number of  investors may be able to control matters requiring common stockholder approval or could cause our stock price to decline through future sales because they beneficially own a large percentage of our common stock.

There were 23,804,776 shares of our common stock outstanding as of March 8, 2011, of which a total of 12 investors beneficially own in the aggregate approximately 63%.   As a result of their significant ownership, these investors may have the ability to exercise a controlling influence over our business and corporate actions requiring stockholder approval, including the election of our directors, a sale of substantially all of our assets, a merger between us and another entity or an amendment to our certificate of incorporation. This concentration of ownership could delay, defer or prevent a change of control and could adversely affect the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock. Also, in the event of a sale of our business, these investors could be able to seek to receive a control premium to the exclusion of other common stockholders.

A significant percentage of the outstanding shares of our common stock, including the shares beneficially owned by these holders, can be sold in the public market from time to time, subject to limitations imposed by federal securities laws. The market price of our common stock could decline as a result of sales of a large number of our presently outstanding shares of common stock by these investors or other stockholders in the public market or due to the perception that these sales could occur. This could also make it more difficult for us to raise funds through future offerings of our equity securities or for you to sell your shares if you choose to do so.

The large concentration of our shares held by this small group of stockholders could result in increased volatility in our stock price due to the limited number of shares available in the market.

Raising additional capital or consummation of additional acquisitions through the issuance of equity or equity-linked securities could dilute your ownership interest.

We may find it necessary to raise capital again sometime in the future or to consummate additional acquisitions through the issuance of equity or equity-linked securities.  If we raise additional funds in the future through the issuance of equity securities or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders will likely experience dilution of their present equity ownership position and voting rights. Depending on the number of shares issued and the terms and conditions of the issuance, new equity securities could have rights, preferences, or privileges senior to those of our common stock.  Depending on the terms, common stock holders may not have approval rights with respect to such issuances.

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Provisions of our charter and by-laws, in particular our “blank check” preferred stock, and in the Delaware General Corporation Law may prevent or discourage an acquisition of our Company that would benefit our stockholders.

Provisions of our charter and by-laws may make it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of our Company, even if a change-in-control would benefit our stockholders. In particular, shares of our preferred stock may be issued in the future without further stockholder approval and upon those terms and conditions, and having those rights, privileges and preferences, as our Board of Directors may determine. In the past, we have issued preferred stock with dividend and liquidation preferences over our common stock, and with certain approval rights not accorded to our common stock, and which was convertible into shares of our common stock at a price lower than the market price of our common stock.  The rights of the holders of our common stock will be subject to, and may be adversely affected by, the rights of the holders of any preferred stock we may issue in the future. The issuance of our preferred stock, while providing desirable flexibility in pursuing possible additional equity financings and other corporate purposes, could have the effect of making it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of us. This could limit the price that certain investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock and discourage these investors from acquiring a majority of our common stock. In addition, the price that future investors may be willing to pay for our common stock may be lower due to the conversion price and exercise price granted to investors in any such private financing.

In addition, as a Delaware corporation, we are subject to certain Delaware anti-takeover provisions, including the application of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which generally restricts our ability to engage in a business combination with any holder of 15% or more of our capital stock.  Our Board of Directors could rely on Delaware law to prevent or delay an acquisition of us.

Compliance with changing regulation of corporate governance and public disclosure may result in additional expenses.

Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and rules subsequently implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and The NASDAQ Stock Market, have imposed substantial requirements on public companies, including with respect to public disclosure, internal control, corporate governance practices and other matters. Our management and other personnel are devoting substantial amounts of time and resources to comply with these evolving laws, regulations and standards.  Moreover, these laws, regulations and standards have significantly increased our legal and financial compliance costs and have made some activities more time-consuming and costly.  In addition, we could incur significant costs to remediate any material weaknesses we identify through these efforts.  We currently are evaluating and monitoring development with respect to these evolving laws, regulations and standards, and cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur or the timing of such costs.  These new regulatory requirements may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue generating activities to compliance activities, which could harm our business prospects and could have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock.

We expect our quarterly revenue and operating results to fluctuate. If we fail to meet the expectations of market analysts or investors, the market price of our common stock could decline substantially, and we could become subject to securities litigation.

Our business is seasonal and can be affected by cyclical factors outside of our control.  In addition, we recognize revenue on many of our contracts once the project is substantially complete, resulting in intermittent periods of fluctuating revenue.  Our quarterly revenue and operating results have fluctuated in the past and are likely to continue to vary from quarter to quarter in the future. You should not rely upon the results of one quarter as an indication of our future performance. Our revenue and

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operating results may fall below the expectations of market analysts or investors in some future quarter or quarters. Our failure to meet these expectations could have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.  In addition, these fluctuations may result in volatility in our results of operations and/or have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock. If the price of our common stock falls significantly we may be the target of securities litigation. If we become involved in this type of litigation, regardless of the outcome, we could incur substantial legal costs, management’s attention could be diverted from the operation of our business, and our reputation could be damaged, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and/or financial condition.

If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they downgrade their evaluations of our stock, the price of our stock could decline.

The trading market for our common stock depends in part on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business.  If one or more of the analysts covering us downgrade their estimates or evaluations of our stock, the price of our stock could decline.  If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our Company, we could lose visibility in the market for our stock, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline.

Item 1B.                               Unresolved Staff Comments.

Not applicable.

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Item 2.                                        Properties.

Our headquarters are located at 1280 Landmeier Road in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. This facility is approximately 13,000 square feet and houses the corporate headquarters and a warehouse. We acquired this facility in August 1998. There is a mortgage on the building that matures in October 2012.

Other properties that are used for sales and administration include:

We believe that the space and location of our current facilities in combination with the current and planned outsourcing of our manufacturing will be sufficient for the level of sales and production projected for the current year.

Item 3.                                        Legal Proceedings.

From time to time, we have been a party to pending or threatened legal proceedings and arbitrations that are routine and incidental to our business. Based upon information presently available, and in light of legal and other defenses available to us, management does not consider the liability from any threatened or pending litigation to be material.

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PART II

Item 5.             Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.

Since February 25, 2008, our stock has traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the trading symbol “LIME.”   From September 22, 2006 until January 28, 2008, our common stock was traded under the symbol “LMEC” on the OTC Bulletin Board.  Trades on the OTC Bulletin Board reflect inter-dealer prices, without retail mark-up, mark-down or commission and may not necessarily represent actual transactions.  Following a 1-for-7 reverse stock split on January 28, 2008, our trading symbol on the OTC Bulletin Board was “LMEG” until February 25, 2008 when our stock began trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market under its current trading symbol.

The following table sets forth the quarterly high and low selling prices for our common stock as reported on the Bulletin Board and NASDAQ since January 1, 2009.

Holders

As of March 8, 2011 we had approximately 1,776 holders of record, approximately 4,400 beneficial owners of our common stock and 23,804,776 shares of common stock outstanding.

Dividends

No dividends were declared or paid during the three month period ended December 31, 2010.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

During the fourth quarter of 2010, we issued a consultant a warrant with a term of four years to purchase 5,000 shares of our common stock at $4.50 per share as partial consideration for services provided to us.

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Also during the fourth quarter of 2010, we issued 250 shares of stock to 11 employees as part of our Employee Recognition Program.

In December 2010, we issued 25,319 shares to employees who participated in our Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

The sales and issuances of unregistered securities listed above were made by us in reliance upon the exemptions from registration provided under Sections 4(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

All other sales of unregistered securities in 2010 were previously disclosed in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q or Current Reports on Form 8-K.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

*            Shares surrendered to cover taxes due on restricted stock

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Item 7.                                        Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations contains forward-looking statements that are based on management’s current expectation, estimates, and projections about our business and operations. Our actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated and expressed in such forward-looking statements as a result of numerous factors, including those we discuss under “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this report.

We have included a discussion of our acquisition of AEM in June 2008 in certain portions of the following discussion and analysis section in order to provide some detail on the impact that this transaction has had and that we expect that this transaction will have on our results of operations and liquidity and capital resource requirements. The unaudited pro forma financial and operational information included herein for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008 have been presented as if the AEM acquisition occurred on January 1, 2008. Such unaudited pro forma information is presented for illustrative purposes only and is not necessarily indicative of what our actual financial or operational results would have been had the AEM acquisition been consummated on such date.

Overview

General

We are a provider of integrated energy engineering, consulting and implementation solutions focused on assisting our clients in the achievement of their energy efficiency goals.  We operate in three specific markets: the commercial and industrial market, the public sector market, and the utility markets.  We perform energy efficiency engineering and consulting as well as the development and implementation of energy efficient lighting, mechanical, electrical, water, weatherization, and renewable energy solutions.

We serve a wide range of commercial and industrial, public sector and utility clients.  Our commercial and industrial clients include many Fortune 500 companies for which we provide our energy efficiency solutions directly.  We also work for a number of utilities for which we manage or operate under their energy demand-side management programs.  Our public sector clients include federal, state and local government agencies and educational institutions, which we serve through our relationships with ESCOs and directly.  ESCOs are awarded project contracts with the public sector, and we provide energy efficiency expertise to develop and implement tailored solutions under these contracts.  In addition we also work directly for public sector clients when the services of an ESCO are not required.

Our revenue increased by $24.9 million, or 35.2%, to $95.7 million during 2010 from $70.8 million during 2009.  We have invested significant capital and resources to build our business infrastructure to provide us with the operational platform to support continued future growth.

The services we provide include:

·                  Energy Engineering and Consulting:  We apply our engineering expertise to analyze each client’s energy consumption and operational needs and develop customized energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions.  Our energy engineering and consulting services include sustainability consulting, energy auditing, energy master planning, project development services, design engineering and facility retro-commissioning.  We also provide design review and analysis of new construction projects to maximize energy efficiency and sustainability, project management of energy-related construction, and processing and procurement of incentive and rebate applications.

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·                  Implementation: We provide complete turnkey implementation services for a range of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, including energy efficient lighting upgrades, energy efficiency mechanical and electrical retrofit and upgrade services, water conservation, weatherization and renewable project development and implementation, including solar, biomass and geothermal.  We consider factors such as current facility infrastructure, best available technologies, building environmental conditions, hours of operation, energy costs, available utility rebates and tax incentives, and installation, operation and maintenance costs of various efficiency alternatives.  Our professionals’ extensive knowledge in energy efficiency solutions enables us to apply the most appropriate, effective and proven technologies available in the marketplace.

·                  Energy Asset Development and Management:  We leverage our engineering and implementation capabilities and experience to provide energy asset development and management services to our clients who wish to benefit from alternative and/or renewable energy sources.  In this role we serve two sets of clients: the energy consumer and investors.  For the energy consumer, we perform project feasibility assessments, evaluate alternative technologies, estimate economic returns, arrange debt and equity financing, manage the design and construction process, and operate the asset under a long-term power purchase agreement.  For our investor clients, we source, qualify and structure investment opportunities to maximize risk-adjusted returns, then manage the design and construction process and operate the assets under long-term power purchase agreements.  In some limited situations we take equity positions in these investments.

In August 2009, we sold our Energy Technology segment through which we offered our patented line of HVAC and lighting controllers under the eMAC and uMAC brand names.  The eMAC technology provides remote monitoring, management and control of commercial rooftop HVAC units.  In early 2009 we decided to sell this division, which had incurred significant losses, to allow us to focus on our faster growing Energy Services business.  We came to agreement with a buyer in early August 2009 and closed on the sale on August 10, 2009.  This segment has been reported as discontinued operations in the accompanying financial statements.

Revenue and Expense Components

Revenue

We generate the majority of our revenue from the sale of our services and the products that we purchase and resell to our clients.

Revenue includes charges for our engineering, installation and/or project management services and the materials we purchase and resell to our customers.  The substantial majority of our revenue is derived from fixed-price contracts, although we occasionally bill on a time-and-materials basis.  Under fixed-price contracts, we bill our clients for each project once the project is completed or throughout the project as specified in the contract.  Under time-and-materials arrangements, we bill our clients on an hourly basis with material costs and other reimbursable expenses passed through and recognized as revenue.  The time it takes to complete our projects ranges from less than a day for a small project under a utility program to four to eight months or longer for some of our larger projects.

Our revenues are somewhat seasonal with the strongest sales occurring in the second half of the year.

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Revenue Recognition

We recognize our revenue when all four of the following criteria are met: (i) persuasive evidence has been received that an arrangement exists; (ii) delivery of the products and/or services has occurred; (iii) the selling price is fixed or determinable; and (iv) collectability is reasonably assured. In addition, we follow the provisions of the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 104, Revenue Recognition, which sets forth guidelines in the timing of revenue recognition based upon factors such as passage of title, installation, payments and client acceptance. Any amounts received prior to satisfying our revenue recognition criteria are recorded as deferred revenue.

We recognize revenue under either the completed contract method, for short term contracts, or the percentage of completion method for multi-month projects.  Under the completed contract method, revenue is recognized once the project is substantially complete, resulting in some variability in revenue.  Under the percentage of completion method we recognize revenue throughout the term of the project based on the percentage of costs incurred.  Under both methods of revenue recognition, any anticipated losses on contracts are charged to operations as soon as they are determinable.

Revenue Concentration

During 2010, Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. (aka National Grid), a customer of our utility program management business, represented approximately 17% of our consolidated revenue, while Honeywell International, Inc. and Johnson Controls, Inc., both ESCOs, each accounted for approximately 15% of our consolidated 2009 revenue.  We have relationships with large ESCOs that have historically provided repeat revenue and have represented a significant percentage of revenue in any given period.  We expect large ESCO projects to continue to be a significant component of our total revenue. In addition, in late 2009 we began serving as program managers to some utilities.  These programs, like the one we have with National Grid, have become significant contributors to our consolidated revenue and are expected to continue to be in future periods.  As a result, we may experience greater client concentration in future periods than we have in the past.

Gross Profit

Gross profit equals our revenue less cost of sales.  Our cost of sales consists primarily of materials, our internal labor and the cost of subcontracted labor.

Gross profit is a key metric that we use to examine our performance.  Gross profit depends in part on the volume and mix of products and services that we sell during any given period.  A portion of our cost of sales, such as the cost of certain supervisory personnel, is relatively fixed.  Accordingly, an increase in the volume of sales will generally result in an increase to our gross profit margins since these fixed expenses are not expected to increase proportionately with sales.

Selling, General and Administrative Expense

Selling, general and administrative expense includes the following components:

·                  direct labor and commission costs related to our employee sales force;

·                  expenses related to our non-production management, supervisory and staff salaries and employee benefits, including the costs of stock-based compensation;

·                  commission costs related to our independent sales representatives;

·                  costs related to insurance, travel and entertainment, office supplies and utilities;

·                  costs related to marketing and advertising our products;

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·                  legal and accounting expenses; and

·                  costs related to administrative functions that serve to support our existing businesses, as well as to provide the infrastructure for future growth.

Amortization of Intangibles

When we acquire other companies we are required to allocate the purchase price between identifiable tangible and intangible assets, with any remaining value allocated to goodwill.  The value allocated to intangible assets is amortized over the estimated life of the related asset.  The acquisitions we completed within 2006, 2007 and 2008 resulted in approximately $8.3 million of intangible assets that are being amortized over periods ranging from 1 month to 20 years.  Approximately $2.7 million of these assets were determined to have indefinite lives and were not being amortized.  We determined during 2009 that this indefinite lived asset, which was comprised of the Parke trade name, was impaired due to our decision to operate all of our businesses under the Lime Energy name.  As a result, we incurred a one-time, $2.7 million non-cash impairment charge during the fourth quarter of 2009 when we reduced this intangible asset’s value to $0.  We recorded total amortization expense of $588,000, $1.2 million and $1.6 million in each of the years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively.  Based on the value of the intangible assets we are currently carrying, we expect to record amortization expense of $669,000 and $693,000 during 2011and 2012, respectively.

Interest Expense, Net

Net interest expense consists of interest expense net of interest income.  Net interest expense represents the interest costs associated with our subordinated convertible term notes (including amortization of the related debt discount and issuance costs), our lines of credit, the mortgage on our headquarters building, the our term notes and various vehicle loans.  All of this debt, with the exception of the mortgage and vehicle loans, was repaid or converted to common stock upon the completion of our public offering in September 2009.

Interest income includes earnings on our invested cash balances and amortization of the discount on our long-term receivables.

Preferred Stock Dividends

Preferred stock dividends represent the dividend expense associated with our convertible preferred stock.  All of the convertible preferred stock was converted into common stock in August 2009.

General Business Trends and Recent Developments

The trends, events, and uncertainties set out in this section have been identified as those we believe are reasonably likely to materially affect the comparison of historical operating results reported in this report to either other past period results or to future operating results. These trends, events and uncertainties include:

Rapid Growth in our Utility and Direct Federal Markets

During 2009 we began marketing our services to two new markets: the utility market and direct federal market.  While sales into these new markets did not contribute significantly to our consolidated results in 2009, combined they represented more than 30% of our consolidated 2010 revenue.  While our experience in both markets is still very limited, we believe that the combined effect of the growth in these markets is likely to contribute to a reduction in the seasonality of our revenue and that these businesses are likely to require less working capital to support a given amount of revenue when compared to that of our other markets.  The gross margin earned on sales to the direct federal market appears as though it will be much lower than the margins earned in other markets, but we believe this will be offset by lower

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SG&A expense required to support sales in this market.  The gross margins earned in the utility market appear to be similar to those earned in some of our existing markets, but we believe the utility market will require less SG&A expense to support a given level of revenue than required in these other markets.   The combination of these factors, as each of these markets continues to grow at different rates is likely to reduce the value of our historical results as an indicator of our future performance.

Sale of Energy Technology Division

In May 2005 we added the eMAC and uMAC line of HVAC and lighting controllers through the acquisition of Maximum Performance Group, Inc. (“MPG”). This product line never reached the level of sales necessary to achieve profitability.   In March 2009 we made the decision to exit the business and retained an investment bank to assist us in locating potential buyers.  On August 10, 2009 we sold certain assets of this business, including the rights to the eMAC and uMAC technology.  The results of operations from the Energy Technology segment have been reported as discontinued operations in the accompanying financial statements.  During the quarter ended June 30, 2009, in anticipation of the sale, we reduced the carrying value of these assets to their expected fair value, incurring an impairment loss of $503,000.

AEM Transaction

On June 11, 2008, we acquired AEM.  AEM provides energy engineering and consulting services and energy efficiency services similar to our existing energy efficiency lighting solutions.  In addition, it provides mechanical and electrical conservation services, water conservation services and renewable energy solutions primarily for government and municipal facilities, all markets that we had not previously participated in.  At that time, the majority of AEM’s clients were ESCOs and it operated primarily on the East Coast.  Because of the significance of this acquisition, our historical operating results prior to June 2008 are not expected to be indicative of our future operating results. In particular, we expect our revenue and expenses to increase substantially as a result of this acquisition. The following table reflects our historical operating results for selected income statement line items for the year ended December 31, 2008, and the same line items on a pro forma basis assuming the AEM acquisition and the related financing transactions occurred effective January 1, 2008:

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As a result of our acquisition of AEM, our pro forma revenue and gross profit were higher than our actual revenue and gross profit and our pro forma SG&A expense was higher than our actual SG&A expense.  The higher pro forma SG&A expense more than offset the higher gross profit, resulting in a pro forma operating loss that was greater than our actual operating loss.  Due to the interest expense that we incurred in connection with our acquisition of AEM, our pro forma net interest expense was higher than our actual net interest expense.  All of this contributed to a pro forma net loss that exceeded our actual net loss.

The acquisition of AEM may reduce the seasonality of our consolidated revenue because AEM derives the majority of its revenue from long-term government contracts that are generally not seasonal in nature.   However, because a few large projects are often responsible for a significant portion of AEM’s annual revenue, the level of activity, initial project delays or gaps between projects can have a significant impact on the revenue and earnings of a particular period.

Public Offering

On September 25, 2009, we completed an underwritten follow-on public offering of our common stock, receiving $27,500,000 in gross proceeds less $1,650,000 in underwriters’ discount and offering costs of $382,000.  On October 2, 2009, the underwriters exercised their overallotment and purchased an additional 750,000 shares at $5.50 per share, less a discount of 6% for total net proceeds to the Company of $3,877,500.  Proceeds from the offering were used to repay a $2 million line of credit and $1.4 million in notes payable.  The balance of the proceeds are being used for other general corporate purposes.

Zemel Road Transaction

In October 2010, we acquired the gas rights to the Zemel Road landfill in Punta Gorda, Florida, for $2.65 million with the intention of building a 4.2 megawatt landfill gas to electricity generating facility on the site.  Please see note 6 in the accompanying financial statements for additional information regarding this investment.  We made this investment to establish ourselves in the asset development and management business and because we believe that this investment will generate consistent long-term revenue and earnings and deliver a strong return to our stockholders.  However, going forward we plan to build this business as a developer and asset manager for third party investors and intend to limit our future investment in similar assets.  In this role we will earn fees for developing and managing assets owned by third party investors.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based upon our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amount of assets and liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of our financial statements. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. Critical accounting policies are defined as those that involve significant judgments and uncertainties, and potentially result in materially different results under different assumptions and conditions. We believe that our most critical accounting policies are limited to those described below. For a detailed discussion on the application of these and other accounting policies, see Note 3 in the notes to our consolidated financial statements.

Use of Estimates

Preparation of the consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States requires management to make estimates and assumptions affecting

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the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses and related contingent liabilities. On an on-going basis, we evaluate our estimates, including those related to revenues, bad debts, warranty accrual, income taxes and contingencies and litigation. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

Revenue and Profit Recognition

We recognize our revenue when all four of the following criteria are met: (i) persuasive evidence has been received that an arrangement exists; (ii) delivery of the products and/or services has occurred; (iii) the selling price is fixed or determinable; and (iv) collectability is reasonably assured. In addition, we follow the provisions of the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 104, Revenue Recognition, which sets forth guidelines in the timing of revenue recognition based upon factors such as passage of title, installation, payments and client acceptance. Any amounts received prior to satisfying our revenue recognition criteria are recorded as deferred revenue.

Historically, we have recognized revenue primarily on a completed contract basis. Under the completed contract method, revenue is recognized once the project is substantially complete, resulting in some variability in revenue. This method works well with projects that are smaller and shorter in duration. Our public sector markets, however, recognize, and will continue to recognize, all of its revenue on a percentage of completion basis.  Projects in our public sector market are generally larger in terms of revenue and longer in duration; therefore, we therefore recognize revenue throughout the term of the project on a completion method based on the percentage of costs incurred.   Approximately half of our revenue is recognized on a percentage of completion basis.  Under both methods of revenue recognition, any anticipated losses on contracts are charged to operations as soon as they are determinable.

Allowance for Doubtful Accounts

We maintain an allowance for doubtful accounts for estimated losses resulting from the inability of our clients to make required payments. The allowance is largely based upon specific knowledge of clients from whom collection is determined to be doubtful and our historical collection experience with such clients. If the financial condition of our clients or the economic environment in which they operate were to deteriorate, resulting in an inability to make payments, or if our estimates of certain clients’ ability to pay are incorrect, additional allowances may be required. During 2010 we increased our allowance by $33,000, and wrote off receivables of $296,000. As of December 31, 2010, our allowance for doubtful accounts was approximately $59,000, or 0.2% of our outstanding accounts receivable.

Amortization of Intangibles

We account for acquisitions of companies in accordance with the ASC 805, “Accounting for Business Combinations.”  We allocate the purchase price to tangible assets and intangible assets based on their fair values, with the excess of purchase price being allocated to goodwill.  The determination of the fair values of these intangible assets is based on a number of significant assumptions as determined by us, including evaluations of the future income producing capabilities of these assets and related future expected cash flows or replacement cost of the asset.  We also make estimates about the useful lives of the acquired intangible assets.  Should different conditions result in the determination that the value of the acquired intangible assets has been impaired, we could incur write-downs of intangible assets, or changes in the estimation of useful lives of those intangible assets.  In accordance with ASC 350, “Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets”, goodwill is not amortized, but is subject to annual impairment testing which is discussed in greater detail below.

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Intangible assets included acquired technology, customer and contractual relationships, client backlog, non-competition agreements and trade names. Acquired technology was initially recorded at its fair value based on the estimated after tax cost to replace the asset and is amortized over its estimated useful life on a straight-line basis.  Customer and contractual relationships represent contractual and separable relationships that we have with certain customers and partners.  These contractual relationships were initially recorded at their fair value based on the present value of expected future cash flows and are amortized over their estimated useful life.  Non-competition agreements were initially recorded based on the present value of potential profits that could be lost, should the individual initiate a competing enterprise, and are amortized over the minimum term of the non-competition agreements.  Trade name intangible assets are initially recorded at fair value based on the present value of the royalty payments that would need to be paid for the development and use of a comparable trade name should the name be unavailable to us.  Trade name intangible assets are deemed to have an indeterminate life and are not amortized.

Impairment Loss

We evaluate all of our long-lived assets, including intangible assets other than goodwill and fixed assets, periodically for impairment in accordance with ASC 360-10-35, “Accounting for the Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets.” We record impairment losses on long-lived assets used in operations when events and circumstances indicate that the assets might be impaired and the undiscounted cash flows estimated to be generated by those assets are less than the carrying amount of those items. Our cash flow estimates are based on historical results adjusted to reflect our best estimate of future market and operating conditions. The net carrying value of assets not recoverable is reduced to fair value. Our estimates of fair value represent our best estimate based on industry trends and reference to market rates and transactions.  During 2009, we determined that the Parke trade name was impaired as a result of our decision to operate the business under the Lime Energy name.  As a result we incurred an impairment loss of $1.6 million, net of the tax benefit, during the fourth quarter of 2009.

Goodwill

We have made acquisitions in the past that included a significant amount of goodwill and other intangible assets. In accordance with ASC 350, goodwill is subject to an annual (or under certain circumstances more frequent) impairment test based on its estimated fair value. Estimated fair value is less than value based on undiscounted operating earnings because fair value estimates include a discount factor in valuing future cash flows.  Many assumptions and estimates underlie the determination of an impairment loss, including economic and competitive conditions, operating costs and efficiencies. Another estimate using different, but still reasonable, assumptions could produce a significantly different result.

During the fourth quarter of 2010 we completed our analyses for the C&I and AEM reporting units and concluded that the implied fair value of the businesses based on the discounted current value of the estimated future cash flows substantially exceeded the carrying value, indicating that the goodwill was not impaired.  For the purposes of our analysis the AEM reporting unit included the operations of our public sector market, which was the primary source of revenue for AEM at the time of its acquisition, and utility management market, which we developed within AEM utilizing the skills and experience of its management.

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We considered various factors in determining the fair value of the testing units, including discounted cash flows from projected earnings, values for comparable companies and the market price of our common stock. We will continue to monitor for any impairment indicators such as underperformance of projected earnings, net book value compared to market capitalization, declining stock price and significant adverse economic and industry trends.  In the event that either testing unit does not achieve projected results, or, as the result of changes in facts of circumstances, we could incur a goodwill impairment charge in a future period.

Share-Based Compensation

We have stock incentive plans that provides for stock-based employee and director compensation, including the granting of stock options and shares of restricted stock, to certain key employees and non-employee directors. These plans are more fully described in Notes 23 and 24 to our consolidated financial statements. Consistent with ASC 718, “Share-Based Payment”, we record stock compensation expense for equity-based awards granted, including stock options and restricted stock unit grants, over the service period of the equity-based award based on the fair value of the award at the date of grant. We recognized $1.3 million, $1.8 million and $3.8 million of stock compensation related to employee options expense, employee stock purchase plan and restricted stock grants during 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively.

Results of Operations

Revenue

We generate the majority of our revenue from the sale of our services as well as the sale of the products that we purchase and resell to our clients. All of our revenue is earned in the United States.

Our revenue includes charges for our engineering, installation and/or project management services and the materials we purchase and resell to our clients. The substantial majority of our revenue is derived from fixed-price contracts, although we occasionally bill on a time-and-materials basis. Under fixed-price contracts, we bill our clients for each project once the project is completed or throughout the project as specified in the contract. Under time-and-materials arrangements, we bill our clients on an hourly basis with material costs and other reimbursable expenses passed through and recognized as revenue. The time it takes to complete are projects range from less than one day for some of our utility program projects to eight months or more for some of our largest public sector projects.

Gross Profit

Gross profit equals our revenue less costs of sales. The cost of sales consists primarily of materials, our internal labor, including engineering, and the cost of subcontracted labor.

Gross profit is a key metric that we use to examine our performance. Gross profit depends in part on the volume and mix of products and services that we sell during any given period. A portion of our expenses, such as the cost of certain salaried project management, are relatively fixed. Accordingly, an increase in the volume of sales will generally result in an increase to our margins since these fixed expenses are not expected to increase proportionately with sales. Our business is also seasonal, as such, our margins will vary with seasonal changes in our revenue due to the fixed nature of some of our costs.   The gross margin earned in our different markets varies, with our direct government market generating the lowest margins and our utility and C&I markets generally earning the highest margins.  Therefore the mix of business generated from our various markets, which will change throughout the year due in part to the seasonal nature of some of the markets, will affect our consolidated gross margin.

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Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses (“SG&A”) include the following components:

·                                          direct labor and commission costs related to our employee sales force;

·                                          costs of our non-production management, supervisory and staff salaries and employee benefits, including the costs of stock-based compensation;

·                                          costs related to insurance, travel and entertainment, office supplies and utilities;

·                                          costs related to marketing and advertising our products;

·                                          legal and accounting expenses; and

·                                          costs related to administrative functions that serve to support our existing businesses, as well as to provide the infrastructure for future growth.

Amortization of Intangibles

We incur expenses related to the amortization of identifiable assets that we have capitalized in connection with our acquisitions.

Other Expense

Other expense consists of interest expense, net of interest earned on our investments. Interest expense represents the interest costs and fees associated with our subordinated convertible term notes (including amortization of the related debt discount and issuance costs), our lines of credit, the mortgage on our headquarters building, notes payable and various vehicle loans. Interest income includes earnings on our invested cash balances and amortization of the discount on our long term receivables.  We offer certain customers extended payment terms.  When we record these receivables we are required to discount them using a market rate of interest and amortize the discount over the term of the receivable.  This amortization is recognized as interest income.

Dividend Expense

Dividend expense includes dividends accrued on our preferred stock and charges for non-cash deemed dividends.

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Twelve-Month Period Ended December 31, 2010

Compared With the

Twelve-Month Period Ended December 31, 2009

Consolidated Results

The following table presents the percentage of certain items to revenue:

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Revenue

Our revenue for the twelve-month period ended December 31, 2010 increased $24.9 million or 35.2%, to $95.7 million when compared to $70.8 million earned for 2009.  Contributing to this increase was revenue generated by our utility program management business and FRR contract.  Both of these were new business initiatives we began in late 2009 and neither of them generated significant revenue during 2009.  Revenue generated by our C&I and public sector markets were flat to down slightly during 2010 when compared to 2009.

Our C&I markets were soft early in 2010, as customers continued to appear reluctant to make significant expenditures.  However, conditions seemed to have improved later in the year resulting in strong fourth quarter sales, permitting this market’s full-year revenue to almost match 2009 results.  We believe that conditions in this market will continue to improve in 2011 and we expect a moderate increase in revenue for 2011 over 2010 levels.

Our public sector markets were impacted early in 2010 by customer uncertainty regarding funding sources.  This situation was resolved by mid-year and revenue for the third and fourth quarters of the year exceeded the levels earned during the same periods in 2009.  However, poor weather during December in the Northeast and Midwest impacted several of our larger projects contributing to revenue for the full-year falling short of the levels achieved during 2009.  We believe that the recovery we experienced during the third and fourth quarters will continue into 2011, resulting in revenue that is modestly higher than that earned during 2010.

The continued growth of our two new business initiatives, in combination with expected contributions from our new Asset Development and Management business and improving conditions in our C&I and public sector markets, should result in additional growth in our consolidated revenue during 2011.  Revenue for 2011 is projected to continue to be unevenly distributed, with 60% to 70% of our revenue coming during the second half of the year.

Gross Profit

Our gross profit for 2010 was $21.1 million, representing a $7.5 million or 54.7% increase over the $13.6 million gross profit earned during 2009.  Our gross profit margin increased from 19.2% during 2009 to 22.0% for 2010.  The increases in our gross profit and gross profit margin were the result of increased revenue, improvements in our operational efficiency in certain of our markets and a change in the mix of our business resulting from the growth of our utility program management business.

Our public sector projects, large C&I projects and projects under the FRR contract typically carry lower margins than smaller C&I and utility program projects.  However, these public sector, large C&I projects and FRR projects also typically have lower associated SG&A expense per dollar of revenue.  We expect the margins to be generated by our new Asset Development and Management business to exceed the consolidated margins we have earned historically, but this new business is not expected to contribute significant revenue during 2011.  We believe that our consolidated gross margins will be flat to slightly higher during 2011 as the mix of business continues to shift such that the lower margin public sector projects become a smaller portion of our total revenue.  Our gross margins will continue to vary throughout the year depending on the mix of revenue and overall revenue level, with the highest margins in the third and fourth quarters when revenues are expected to peak.

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Selling General &Administrative Expense

Our selling, general and administrative expense increased $1.9 million or 8.1%, to $25.9 million during the twelve-month period ended December 31, 2010, when compared to $23.9 million for the same period during 2009.  All of the increase in our SG&A expense was related to our three new business initiatives: the utility program management business, the FRR contract and the Asset Development and Management business.  We started the utility program management business and won the FRR contract late in 2009, so neither of these businesses had significant expenses during 2009.  We began the Asset Development and Management business during 2010 and it had no expenses during 2009.  We reduced our SG&A expense during 2010 through realignment of resources and headcount reductions in areas that support our public sector and C&I markets and in our corporate overhead.

As a result holding the growth in our SG&A expense to 8.1% while our revenue grew 35.2%, our SG&A expense as a percentage of revenue declined from 33.8% in 2009 to 27.0% during 2010.

We expect our SG&A expense to grow at a faster rate during 2011 than it did during 2010  as we incur a full year of expense associated with our new business initiatives, support continued growth in our new business initiatives and invest in a few key positions to strengthen our organization and diversify our public sector offerings.  While these investments in key hires are not expected to generate significant revenue during 2011, we believe that they will result in greater revenue growth and profitability for the Company over the next three to five years than we would experience without them.  Although we anticipate the growth rate of our SG&A expense to increase during 2011, we continue to believe the growth in our revenue will outpace the growth in our SG&A expense for at least the next several years, resulting in further reductions in our SG&A as a percent of revenue.

Amortization of Intangibles

Amortization expense declined $0.6 million to $0.6 million in 2010 from $1.2 million in 2009.  Amortization expense declined as certain intangible assets associated with prior acquisitions became fully amortized.   Amortization expense will increase slightly during 2011 to approximately $0.7 million as the result of amortization expense associated with the acquisition of the Zemel Road gas rights based on our expectation that the project will begin operating in late summer.

Impairment Loss

During 2009 we determined that the Parke trade name was impaired due to our decision to operate the business under the Lime Energy name.  As a result, we reduced the carrying value of this intangible asset to $0, incurring a $2.6 million impairment loss during the fourth quarter of 2009.  This loss was partially offset by the reversal of a $1 million deferred tax liability associated with this indefinite-lived asset, which was reported as an income tax benefit.

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Other Income (Expense)

Other non-operating income (expense) declined $3.2 million to income of $172,000 during the twelve months ended December 31, 2010 from expense of $3.1 million during the twelve months ended December 31, 2009.  Interest expense decreased $3.2 million during 2010 to $33,000 from $3.2 million during 2009.    The components of interest expense for the years ended December 31, 2010 and 2009 are as follows (in thousands):

Total contractual interest expense (the interest on outstanding loan balances) decreased $515,000 or 94.0%, from $548,000 in 2009 to $33,000 in 2010.  The decline in interest expense was the result of the repayment of all of our debt except for the mortgage on our building and various vehicle loans following the public offering of our common stock in September 2009.

Amortization of deferred issuance costs in 2009 included $1.4 million of debt discount amortization and $4,000 of deferred issuance cost amortization, both of which were associated with the subordinated convertible notes.

In August 2009 we issued warrants in connection with the bridge line of credit.  These warrants were valued at $309,000 using a trinomial option pricing model and the value was recorded as a debt discount, which we began to amortize over the scheduled term of the facility.  We terminated the bridge line of credit in October 2009 following the completion of a follow-on offering of common stock, at which time we expensed the remaining unamortized debt discount.

In addition, during 2009 we incurred a $938,000 non-cash charge resulting from the conversion of the subordinated convertible notes to common stock at a conversion price which was lower than their stated conversion price.

Our interest income increased $68,000 to $205,000 during 2010 from $137,000 during 2009.  Approximately $168,000 of the 2010 interest income was amortization of the discount on our long-term receivables, an increase of $55,000, or 48.7%, from the $113,000 recognized on these receivables during 2009.

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Discontinued Operations

The $1.8 million loss from discontinued operations reported in 2009 represents the results from our Energy Technology business, which we sold in August 2009.

Dividend Expense.

The preferred dividend expense reported in 2009 was associated with our Series A-1 convertible preferred stock, which was converted into common stock on August 10, 2009.

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Twelve-Month Period Ended December 31, 2009

Compared With the

Twelve-Month Period Ended December 31, 2008

Consolidated Results

(1) Assumes the acquisition of Applied Energy Management had been completed on January 1, 2008.

The following table presents the percentage of certain items to revenue:

(1) Assumes the acquisition of Applied Energy Management had been completed on January 1, 2008.

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Revenue

Our consolidated revenue for the twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 increased $15.8 million or 28.8% over the $55.0 million earned during the twelve-month period ended in 2008.  The increase was primarily due to the inclusion of a full twelve months of revenue from AEM and increased revenue derived from our public sector markets.  Revenue derived from our commercial and industrial markets was flat from the prior year.  Our revenue increased $5.7 million or 8.7% when compared to our pro-forma results for 2008.  This increase again was the result of higher sales in our public sector markets.

Uncertainty on the part of our Commercial & Industrial (C&I) customers related to the economy impacted our results in the C&I market during 2009.  Revenue from our public sector customers was negatively impacted late in 2009 by delays and uncertainty related to the availability of funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (commonly referred to as the stimulus).

Gross Profit

Our gross profit increased $1.9 million or 16.4% to $13.6 million during 2009 from $11.7 million during 2008 and $0.2 million or 1.3% from pro-forma 2008 results.    Our gross profit margin was 19.2% during 2009 compared to 21.3% for 2008 on a historical basis and $20.6% on a pro-forma basis.  The decline in our gross margin was due to a change in the mix of our business that included a larger portion of lower margin jobs.

Selling General &Administrative Expense

Our selling, general and administrative expenses increased $5.8 million or 32.3% during 2009 to $23.9 million from $18.1 million for 2008.  The majority of the increase in our SG&A was due to the inclusion of twelve months of expense from AEM, which was acquired in June 2008.  Our SG&A expense increased $1.6 million or 7.3% when compared to 2008 pro-forma SG&A.  Our SG&A as a percent of revenue increased slightly during 2009 to 33.8% from 32.9% in 2008 on a historical basis, but declined from 34.3% on a pro-forma basis.  The increase in SG&A expense over pro-forma was primarily the result of the investment in the utility program management and FRR initiatives during 2009.  The 2009 SG&A expense also included a one-time reserve of $300,000 for a legal settlement.   Other changes in SG&A included a $1.9 million decline in our share based compensation expense, which was largely offset by increases in wages, outside services, franchise taxes and rent expense.  A significant portion of the increase in outside services was related to implementation of a new accounting system at AEM and a new corporate email system.

Amortization of Intangibles

Amortization expense declined $347,000, or 22.1%, to $1.2 million during 2009 from $1.6 million in 2008.  Amortization expense has declined as certain intangible assets associated with past acquisitions have become fully amortized.