Start-Up Station A Makes it Easy for Businesses to Go Green
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 navigate a complex bidding process that involves requesting proposals, evaluating bids, and ultimately contracting with a provider.
A New Way of Doing Things
Now, the startup Station A, founded by a pair of MIT alumni and their colleagues, is streamlining the process of deploying clean energy. The company has developed a marketplace for clean energy that helps real estate owners and businesses analyze properties to calculate returns on clean energy projects, create detailed project listings, collect and compare bids, and select a provider.
A Platform for Clean Energy
The platform helps real estate owners and businesses adopt clean energy technologies like solar panels, batteries, and EV chargers at the lowest possible prices, in places with the highest potential to reduce energy costs and emissions.
How it Works
Station A uses a lot of AI and machine learning to turn addresses into building footprints and to understand their electricity costs, available incentives, and where they can expect the highest ROI. This would normally require tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of consulting time, and they can do it for next to no money very quickly.
Background
Manos Saratsis, Station A’s head of product, studied environmental design modeling at MIT’s Department of Architecture, using data from sources like satellite imagery to understand how communities consume energy and to propose the most impactful potential clean energy solutions. He says classes with professors Christoph Reinhart and Kent Larson were particularly eye-opening.
Kevin Berkemeyer, Station A’s CEO, served as president of the MIT Energy Club while at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He was also a research assistant at the MIT Energy Initiative as part of the Future of Solar report and a teacher’s assistant for course 15.366 (Climate and Energy Ventures). The eventual co-founders didn’t cross paths at MIT, but they ended up working together at the utility NRG Energy after graduation.
From the Campus to the World
Today, about 2,500 clean energy developers are active on Station A’s platform. A number of large real estate investment trusts also use its services, in addition to businesses like HP, Nestle, and Goldman Sachs. If Station A were a developer, Saratsis says it would now rank in the top 10 in terms of annual solar deployments.
Conclusion
Station A is making it easy for businesses to adopt clean energy technologies, reducing the complexity and cost associated with the process. By providing a platform for real estate owners and businesses to analyze, compare, and select clean energy providers, Station A is helping to accelerate the clean energy transition.
FAQs
Q: What is Station A?
A: Station A is a marketplace for clean energy that helps real estate owners and businesses analyze properties, calculate returns on clean energy projects, and select a provider.
Q: How does it work?
A: Station A uses AI and machine learning to turn addresses into building footprints and to understand their electricity costs, available incentives, and where they can expect the highest ROI.
Q: What kind of businesses use Station A?
A: Real estate owners, businesses, and large real estate investment trusts use Station A’s services.
Q: How many clean energy developers are active on Station A’s platform?
A: About 2,500 clean energy developers are active on Station A’s platform.
