Platform to speed up clean energy projects | MIT News

Businesses and developers often face a steep learning curve when installing clean energy technologies such as solar installations and EV chargers. To get a fair deal, they need to browse a complex tender process that involves requiring proposals, evaluating bids, and ultimately signing with providers.

Now, launch station A, founded by MIT alumni and colleagues, is simplifying the process of deploying clean energy. The company has developed a market for clean energy that can help real estate owners and businesses analyze properties to calculate returns on clean energy projects, create detailed project lists, collect and compare bids, and select providers.

The platform helps real estate owners and businesses adopt clean energy technologies, such as solar panels, batteries and EV chargers, at the lowest prices, where the potential to reduce energy costs and emissions is the highest.

“We did a lot of things to make it simple to adopt clean energy,” explains Manos Saratsis Smarts ’15. “Imagine if you want to buy a ticket and your travel agency uses only one operator. It would be more expensive and wouldn’t even get to some places. Our customers want to have multiple options and have easy access to the track record of the people they are working with.”

A Station A has partnered with some of the country’s largest real estate companies, some of which own thousands of properties to reduce the carbon footprint of their buildings. The company also works with grocery chains, warehouses and other businesses to accelerate the clean energy transition.

“Our platform uses a lot of AI and machine learning to convert addresses into building footprints, understanding their electricity costs, the incentives available, and the highest ROI they can expect,” said Saratsis, who serves as product leader at A Station A. “It usually takes tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in consultation time, and we can almost do that very quickly.”

Building the foundation

As a graduate student in the MIT Department of Architecture, Saratsis studied environmental design modeling using data from sources such as satellite images to understand how communities consume energy and propose the most influential potential clean energy solutions. He said the course with Professor Christoph Reinhart and Kent Larson was particularly eye-opening.

“I have the ability to build thermal energy models and simulate electricity consumption in MIT starting buildings,” Saratsis said.

Berkemeyer served as chairman of the MIT Energy Club at the MIT Sloan Management. He is also a research assistant for the MIT Energy initiative, as part of the teacher assistant (climate and energy adventure) at Solar Report’s Future and Course 15.366. He said the Entrepreneurship course with Aulet Professor of Practice Act and Senior Lecturer Jason Jay was growing. Prior to studying at MIT, Berkemeyer had extensive experience in developing solar and storage projects and selling clean energy products to commercial customers. The ultimate co-founders didn’t cross the path at MIT, but they ended up collaborating with NRG Energy after graduation.

“As co-founders, we see an opportunity to change how businesses approach clean energy,” said Berkmeyer, now CEO of Station A. “A Station A is out of a common belief that data and transparency can unlock the full potential of clean energy technology for all.”

At NRG, the founders built software to help identify customer decarbonization opportunities without sending analysts to the website for face-to-face review.

“If they work with a large grocery chain or a large retailer, we will use proprietary analytics to evaluate the portfolio and make recommendations for solar projects, energy efficiency and demand response, which will yield positive returns within a year,” Saratsis explained.

These tools have been a huge success within the company. In 2018, the couple, along with co-founders Jeremy Lucas and Sam Steyer, decided to split the technology into Station A.

The founders first worked with energy companies, but quickly shifted their focus to real estate owners with large portfolios and large businesses and had long-term lease contracts. Many customers have hundreds or even thousands of addresses for evaluation. Using these addresses alone, Station A can provide a detailed financial return estimate for clean energy investments.

In 2020, the company will focus on the competitive bidding process from sales visits to accessing its analysis to creating markets for clean energy transactions, helping businesses run clean energy projects. After the project is installed, Station A can also evaluate whether it achieves its expected performance and track financial returns.

“When I talk to people outside of the industry, it’s like, ‘Wait, doesn’t this exist yet?” Sarazs said. “It’s a little crazy, but the industry is still very new and no one can find a way to run the bidding process with a transparent and scale statistics.”

From campus to the world

Today, about 2,500 clean energy developers are active on the Station A platform. In addition to businesses like HP, Nestlé and Goldman Sachs, many large real estate investment trusts also use their services. If A Station A is a developer, Saratsis said it will now be in the top 10 in terms of annual solar deployments.

The founders attribute their time at MIT to helping them scale.

“Whether it’s through the people we meet at Sloans or through engagement with MIT, many of these relationships have originated from the MIT network,” Saratsis said. “Most of this business is about reputation and we have built a very good reputation.”

Since its inception, A Station A has also been sponsoring courses at MIT’s Sustainability Lab, where Saratsis conducted research as a student. The founders say that when they work to grow A’s products, they use the skills they gain as students every day.

“What we did when we were at MIT somehow inspired everything we did around architectural analysis,” Sarazs said.

“A is just starting to start,” Berkmeyer said. “Clean energy adoption is not just technology, it involves making the process seamless and accessible. That’s what drives us and we’re excited to bring about this transition.”