Nikola Power, the Denver-based climate tech software firm, is thrilled to announce it’s inked a deal with the nonprofit ICAST (International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology). ICAST was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) to implement a national initiative to overcome the hurdles of deploying solar energy for low-income populations living in multifamily affordable housing (MFAH).
Nikola Power will provide in-depth solar + storage analysis, modeling and investment potential for low income multi-family housing projects in Colorado and other key markets.
Numerous studies, including several from the U.S. Global Research Program, show that low income communities often are the first and worst impacted by the devastation of climate change.
“Through our agreement with ICAST, we’ll have the opportunity to work on renewable projects that can deliver double impact, climate mitigation through further adoption of renewables while also directly benefiting lower income communities,” said Nikola Power Founder and CEO Jonathan W. Postal (J.W.). “It’s a perfect fit for our mission at Nikola Power and honestly, the right thing to do for our community as a whole.”
Nikola Power, who specializes in developing software tools to better and more smartly scale the distributed energy industry, will use its proprietary energy management software suite and expert team of battery system engineers to complete the work.
“This is an ideal opportunity for our organization. We have spent the last year expanding our array of energy management analysis and operations software for the residential, commercial and microgrid markets,” Postal continued.
Founded in 2002, the team at ICAST is acutely aware of the economic divide and impact when it comes to climate change. From its inception, ICAST has worked to provide triple bottom line impacts via sustainable solutions for underserved communities. They seek to preserve housing affordability, address climate change, and provide local jobs and workforce training to underserved populations.
Currently, ICAST is focusing on the U.S. multifamily housing sector. By investing in local communities, preserving and upgrading affordable housing, and reducing energy and water waste, the organization provides benefits aligned with the triple bottom line standard of its mission. ICAST is also set to scale our influence through programs consulting property owners on sustainable development and technology.
“We are really happy to partner with Nikola Power,” said ICAST CEO Ravi Malholtra. “We’ve worked with Nikola Power’s founder, J.W. Postal, on solar projects for low-income schools and communities in the past. This new agreement has potential to drive adoption of solar + storage in key communities of need. Nikola Power’s combination of software and expertise in project execution will allow us to more effectively plan, deploy and optimize solar and battery systems for the low income multi-family space.
The two companies are scheduled to begin work later this month.
News item from Nikola Power
“Nikola Power, who specializes in developing software tools to better and more smartly scale the distributed energy industry, will use its proprietary energy management software suite and expert team of battery system engineers to complete the work.”
It seems a data driven, software analysis is becoming popular before prospective clients adopt a particular technology for energy needs. Just read an article about a Carnegie Mellon backed software (suite) acronym (SUGAR) Suite of Unified Grid Analyses with Renewables. This particular application seems derived to push an interconnected on demand market instead of a well ‘funded’ but sometimes underused capacity market for energy generation and use. Wasting money running fueled generation plants in “standby” or “spinning reserve” costs ratepayers more than they should have to pay for electricity resilience. For businesses, residential, C&I entities it is becoming more important to analyze a particular energy plan comparing capital outlays to eventual cost savings results. Making these expenditure decisions correctly will enable faster payoff of the asset installed, with just a little initial analysis of the system and local grid rules and regulations taken into the analysis stream.