Commercial and Industrial Project Developers Sign Up For SaaS Energy-Efficiency Platform

Financing options for commercial and industrial businesses to carry out energy efficiency projects are expanding, spurred forward by the success of innovative financing vehicles for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems large and small.

Having recently launched a $30 million debt fund to finance capital leases and performance-based, off-balance-sheet energy reduction shared-service agreements (SSAs), Noesis Energy on April 17 announced that 28 energy project developers had signed up to use the Noesis Pro software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to design, analyze, propose and finance energy efficiency projects for commercial and industrial (C&I) buildings during the first quarter.

Financing mid-market energy efficiency projects

Austin, Texas-based Noesis Energy and its Noesis Financial Services arm are among a growing host of companies that see a multi-billion dollar market opportunity in helping create a mid-market tier for energy-efficiency projects.

Collectively, the 28 project developers who signed up to use the Web-based Noesis Pro platform to develop energy-efficiency project proposals for commercial and industrial businesses employ more than 600 people and make over 2,300 project proposals per year -- with a combined value of nearly $500 million, Noesis highlights in a news release. They span the energy-efficiency value chain, ranging from equipment manufacturing and energy management companies to companies providing engineering and consulting services, as well as design-and-build services for a wide range of energy-efficiency technologies -- including lighting, HVAC, building controls and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems.

"The common thread among all of our customers is that they've identified a gap or inefficiency within their sales or post-sales process where Noesis financial services and/or our Noesis Pro platform can help," Noesis Energy CEO Scott Harmon explained. "They're all looking for that extra edge so they can win more efficiency projects and grow their business."

With its SaaS energy-efficiency project development platform, Noesis aims to provide third-party commercial and industrial project developers with a toolkit that will enable them to expand the market for energy efficiency projects, which has been almost exclusively limited to government and large enterprise customers. As Energy Service Sales Leader of TraneOregon Pete Kramer elaborated:

“The biggest challenge we always face that holds back energy efficiency projects from moving forward are budget constraints and perceived risk with return on investment from savings. The Noesis Shared Savings Agreement model directly addresses both of these barriers. Having a simple solution where the customer only pays if the project delivers the promised savings just makes sense."

Noesis continues to add to and refine its Noesis Pro platform even as it is put to use. Version 2.0 of the platform was released coincidentally with the latest announcement. Aiming to streamline the process of identifying promising new customers and energy-efficiency projects, Noesis Pro developers have added new features that reduce the time and effort needed to carry out project estimations, as well as an auto-generated Efficiency Business Proposals capability. The latest enhancements are designed to “dramatically reduce the time it takes to identify and qualify opportunities before project developers go on-site for time-intensive and costly 'free audits,'” Noesis explained.

Images credit: 1) DUH Sourcing Solutions; 2) Noesis Energy