Company: Palmetto
Nomination Submitted by: Upcause
Company Description: Palmetto is a clean technology company building the tools, software and AI to accelerate residential clean energy adoption across the United States. Palmetto offers both B2B and D2C services to streamline the sales and installation of household clean energy adoption like solar. Palmetto's mission is to lead the world towards a clean energy future.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Energy Industry Innovation of the Year
 Nomination Title: Technology Accelerating the Consumer Adoption of Clean Energy
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the achievements of the nominated organization since January 1 2022, OR written answers to the questions for this category? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
N/A
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: Briefly describe the nominated organization: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 159 words used.
Palmetto is a technology company accelerating the mass adoption of clean energy. Palmetto believes that access to renewable energy is a right, not just for the wealthy few. Palmetto builds B2B and D2C products and services to make it faster and cheaper for homeowners to switch to clean energy sources, including data-driven insights into clean energy options, affordable financial options and a fully digitized sales experience.
Rather than focusing on how to get solar panels on rooftops one home at a time, Palmetto is focused on how technology can drive this impact at scale. Palmetto's technology and energy intelligence data is used by large businesses like real estate development and financing companies, homeowners insurance and electric utility companies to move their consumers faster towards net zero goals. For example, Exelon (one of the nation’s leading energy providers with 10 million customer accounts) uses Palmetto’s technology for grid planning and to inform broader strategy to move towards net zero emissions.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Outline the organization's achievements since the beginning of 2022 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 200 words used.
As one of only 83 climate tech unicorns worldwide, Palmetto is building technology to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy.
Palmetto accelerates clean energy roll-out in many ways. Because of its asset-light, technology platform business model, Palmetto is able to respond quickly to market changes to ideate and deploy new solutions that continue momentum forward in clean energy adoption. For example, in 2023 when high interest rates caused a 30% drop in demand in the nationwide solar industry, Palmetto:
- Launched a new partnership model for solar installers to help them stabilize their cash flows and grow their businesses through a bundled suite of tools that streamline solar sales, operations, data analytics, and more.
- Launched a new consumer financing subscription product called LightReach. LightReach allows homeowners to get solar panels without any upfront investment or responsibility for maintaining the system and pay a low fixed rate cheaper than local utility companies.
- Made its proprietary APIs available to over 10,000 residential clean energy companies, offering unprecedented access to energy data like solar energy intelligence mapping, optimizing sales processes and customer acquisition, and instantly connecting solar sellers to solar financiers across the marketplace to make the adoption process less costly for homeowners.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 247 words used.
Palmetto’s main competitor is not any other energy company, utility, or clean tech company. Palmetto’s biggest competitor is climate change.
Technological advancements have made ending climate change a reality. Today, there are hundreds of innovative technology products that, when combined through a single platform, can deliver a distributed, clean energy solution. With thousands of utility-efficient products available to consumers, the challenge is tying together a cohesive, cost-saving solution so all technologies work together.
For example, businesses can plug into Palmetto’s API platform to gain access to Palmetto’s mapping technology which has mapped and calculated the solar energy potential of over 85% of American rooftops. This intelligence accelerates the deployment of solar panels by:
- Educating homeowners and building owners of their unique ability to generate solar electricity
- Helping utility and energy companies laser in on exact communities where there’s high potential for renewable energy conversion.
Every month, Palmetto’s platform quotes personalized solar energy savings for nearly 15,000 homeowners and generates nearly 15,000 instant solar designs for rooftops using Palmetto’s energy AI model. This solar energy intelligence mapping is also being used by leading utility companies like Exelon, which serves 10 million households for grid panning.
To date, Palmetto’s technology has been used to cover 126 utilities, and 72 million households in 25 states. The result of this is that the use of Palmetto’s platform has resulted in nearly $1 billion in clean energy transactions, making over $300 million of IRA tax credits available to qualifying homeowners.
- You have the option to answer this final question: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 82 words used.
| Attachments/Videos/Links: |
|---|
|
