Climate Solutions: The Meteoric Rise of Solar Power
Last week The Economist published an article titled “The Exponential Growth of Solar Power Will Change the World,” emphasizing a well-known trend at Energize: energy technologies such as solar and batteries are rapidly expanding.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) regularly projects energy generation from specific technologies. However, their predictions regarding solar have consistently been proven wrong, as shown in the chart comparing projections with actual deployment.
Solar’s growth is attributed to declining deployment costs and effective large-scale execution strategies. It now costs less per unit than most other technologies. This cost decline isn’t solely due to hardware; advancements in software and services for utility-scale solar have also played crucial roles.
At Energize we look to invest in long-term, enduring megatrends. The energy transition is a natural focus for us and the scale and deployment of utility scale solar has generated tremendous investment opportunities. The best climate solutions investments enable the deployment and management of assets at scale. The ecosystem around solar deployment demonstrates effective alignment of technology and system innovations.
Energize’s portfolio includes companies deeply involved in the utility-scale solar sector:
PVcase: utility scale siting and design software and used by a majority of utility scale developers worldwide
Sitetracker: project management software for large high volume, distributed assets. Large scale solar deployment and operations is a great use case, including a recent announcement by Cypress Creek.
Banyan Infrastructure: finance software bringing together capitalization stakeholders for solar projects
DroneDeploy: reality capture for the physical world. In solar: autonomous drone flight and aerial analytics to monitor construction progress and operational performance; used by the top developers worldwide
Amperon: energy demand forecasting that enables energy suppliers to maximize /match generation to load, and thereby optimize revenue production. This is especially important for generators and consumers in renewables-heavy zones
Sourcemap: supply chain transparency software helping OEMs identify the source of materials. In solar, this software helps identify the source of minerals and labor that go into panel production.
Handle: construction payments tools, including lien and credit products. At Energize we say “if you are long the energy transition you are long the construction sector” and the tools that Handle builds are used by the construction and materials firms building our next-generation solar and wind assets.
These companies contribute to efficiency and growth within the solar asset class. Energize identifies and supports businesses that drive climate solutions in these rapidly evolving technologies – and solar is a great market right now.