Start-Up Alley, presented by Solar Power International and Clean Energy Trust, features companies with cutting-edge technologies and innovative business plans. Solar Power World asked the leaders of three companies a few questions—the answers are below.
Innovated learning
Doug Donovan, CEO, Interplay Learning
What does your company do?
Interplay Learning is the leader in creating simulations to help people start or advance their career in the technical or building trades. Our specialty is interactive, life-like simulations, which allow a learner to accelerate practical understanding and application. In solar we’re creating an online platform that merges our simulated content with video training and assessment.
How will this improve the solar industry?
We found solar professionals are actively looking for ways to advance their careers and skills, while new hires must be adequately trained to ensure they stay in the industry and perform their jobs well. Unfortunately training options for both new and existing solar professionals are expensive and take workers away from on-the-job training. Our Online Solar Training Platform allows all workers in the solar industry a place to learn, practice and prepare to excel in their solar careers.
Where did the business idea come from?
As we began discussions with directors of training in the solar industry, the pain-point became clear. The solar market is gravely lacking in its training needs in to keep up with the demand. We’ve generated catalogs of solar-focused training content and packaged it in a platform that gives installers, site survey experts and salespeople a portal to learn solar basics, as well as to advance their solar knowledge.
Easy data access
Elena Lucas, co-founder and CEO, UtilityAPI
What does your company do?
UtilityAPI is the data infrastructure for the new energy economy. For new energy technologies like solar, we’re automating the process of getting data out of utilities so energy consultants can complete proposals faster, reduce friction in financing and engage with customers after an installation.
How will this improve the solar industry?
Our service reduces the soft costs of solar, from customer acquisition to customer management. The data we pull enables solar consultants to make more informed decisions about their customer.
Where did the business idea come from?
We saw the data challenge from the utility side and the solar industry’s side. Answering data requests is expensive for the utility, and solar companies need data quickly to increase the velocity of their sales funnel. For commercial buildings, it can take up to four months to get data from a utility—that certainly increases the sales process. We cut those four months out of the sales cycle.
Connecting investors with opportunity
Jonathan Burt, CEO, X3Exchange
What does your company do?
X3Exchange.com is a specialized brokerage firm providing marketing and solar asset transaction services leveraging our proprietary open-source platform.
How will this improve the solar industry?
By offering a user-based platform with sophisticated back-office brokerage services anyone can participate in marketing solar assets and solar-viable real estate. We connect investors and developers with real project opportunities.
Where did the business idea come from?
Having been active in the renewable asset brokerage field for the last 15 years, I noticed a real lack of transparency in the solar development and investment sector here in the U.S. The X3E platform provides a clearing house of development opportunities and a platform for owners to market operational solar systems.
