July 22nd, 2020 — In 2020, three-quarters of all new energy generation capacity in the United States will be renewable. Although non-residential PV has historically lagged utility-scale installations, declining prices for distributed solar plus storage hold the potential for hundreds of thousands of commercial and industrial buildings to save money by switching to clean energy. Yet as clean energy becomes cheaper, financing becomes available, and demand from corporates and utilities rises, a fragmented clean energy ecosystem is leaving economically viable projects unfulfilled.
Over the past two decades, sectors such as retail, travel, and real estate have been transformed by digital marketplaces that give sellers the ability to access millions of customers and enable buyers to compare options across the market. Clean energy has not undergone the same transformation, and commercial clean energy projects are almost always transacted on an individual basis with unequal access to data, pricing, and opportunities for cross-sector collaboration. This is where Station A comes in.
Station A is the world’s first clean energy marketplace. Through machine learning and artificial intelligence, Station A automates clean energy development for commercial buildings and radically simplifies the way clean energy is bought and sold.
The Clean Energy Project Landscape Today
A typical clean energy project, such as commercial solar + storage or EV charging infrastructure, involves providers (developers, utilities, ESCOs, hardware manufacturers, EPCs, and capital providers) and buyers (building owners, property managers, and REITs). Nearly every project is planned and transacted individually, inhibiting standardization and cost transparency. The average provider uses 6-10 software tools to access buyers and complete a project, while buyers lack access to sophisticated data and cost comparisons.
This lack of standardization and visibility leaves potentially profitable clean energy projects unbuilt. A marketplace for clean energy projects provides visibility and access to a wide array of projects, driving down prices and democratizing access for smaller building owners and operators.
Major industry players have not yet built a holistic clean energy marketplace, as they tend to be too geographically constrained (utilities, ESCOs) or are too technology-specific (hardware manufacturers, software providers). Other potential competitors are focused on providing only a single solution (solar or energy efficiency), serving one piece of the value chain (solar design or economic analysis), or offering a static view into the clean energy options for a building. Therefore, Station A competes primarily with the status quo process associated with finding, qualifying, and originating clean energy projects.
The Station A Marketplace
Spun out of NRG in 2018, Station A’s SaaS platform leverages machine learning and geospatial analysis to automate clean energy development for commercial buildings. The company has analyzed over 1M buildings across the US and Canada to determine the locational value, feasibility, technical operations, and financial performance of potential solar and storage assets. Station A has identified over 200 GW of economically viable solar and solar + storage projects to date.
The company’s 1000+ users, including Schneider Electric and Southern Company, have used the platform to explore over $7B of clean energy projects in the past 6 months alone, qualifying nearly $1B high-interest projects. Now, by virtualizing transactions, integrating with analytics channels, and tapping into its existing user network, Station A has built a data-driven marketplace using its ML and AI abilities to unleash data accessibility at scale. Station A monetizes the platform by taking a percentage of every transaction that occurs on the marketplace.
Powerhouse Ventures Invests in Station A
In 2018, Powerhouse Ventures invested in Station A’s pre-seed round as one of our fund’s first investments. Over the past two years, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with the entire Station A team as a member of the company’s board of directors.
Today, Powerhouse Ventures joins Station A’s seed round, led by Renewal Funds, alongside Schneider Electric Ventures, Southern Company, and former SunPower President Howard Wenger. We look forward to continuing to work with Station A Co-Founder & CEO Kevin Berkemeyer and the entire Station A team to expand their Marketplace and accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy.
Read more about Station A’s announcement in today’s Greentech Media article and Station A's blog post.
Special thanks to Ry Storey-Fisher and Alexandra Harbour.
To read more about Powerhouse Ventures’ other publicly-announced investments, visit our Insights page.
