Station A | Blog

Launching Station A

Written by The Station A Team | 2018-08-22

We’re Station A, a software company focused on transitioning the world to 100% clean energy. We began this work as the software team supporting NRG’s renewables efforts. Now we’re spinning out as our own company, and setting out to change the way clean energy is evaluated and deployed in the built environment.

Station A started in 2013 as a skunkworks team focused on first-of-kind clean energy projects. Three years ago, we started building an online record of the U.S. energy system. We saw that clean energy projects required developers like NRG to organize and understand a lot of different types of data: from detailed information about buildings and how they use energy, to utility tariffs, to the specifics of how clean energy products work.

These data needs were leading to high project costs, which were preventing clean energy from being built. The challenge was ripe for a software-enabled approach.

We started building web crawlers to automate the processes of harvesting, structuring, and linking that information. Once we had a solid foundation of data, we released an early version of our clean energy product simulator, which could recommend which clean energy solutions to deploy at specific buildings. NRG used this technology to focus on the buildings where they could help customers save the most money.

More and more of our NRG colleagues started using our platform and a logical question emerged: what if we brought developers like NRG and the energy users they serve onto one platform? The same information that developers use to find energy users would allow these energy users to analyze their own energy choices, understanding how to lower their electricity bill and environmental footprint. On top of that, everyone is capable of smarter and more transparent decision-making once they share the same data. This could dramatically reduce project costs and open up new markets for clean energy.

With NRG’s support, Station A launched as a standalone business earlier this summer to create the network where the whole energy industry could work together.

Today, our platform is live. It provides clean energy developers the insight they need to take any building to zero carbon emissions. We provide predictive energy usage data for close to 1 million commercial and industrial buildings in the United States, Ontario, and Puerto Rico. We collect as much real data as possible on things that inform clean energy projects, like building ownership and local weather. Where we don’t have data, we estimate, and we use machine learning and real-world results to continuously refine our models.

This information is the first step in building Station A’s user network, currently made up of 90 clean energy developer organizations and over 330 users. Over time, Station A will open up to more stakeholders: energy users, technology providers, utilities, financiers, cities, and beyond.

We want Station A to become the single source of truth for clean energy development.

Our team brings diverse experience and skills spanning software engineering, data science, architecture, and project development. We want to bring a fresh, creative perspective to the clean energy industry and we’re proud of our company’s values: thinking globally, working incrementally, and designing thoughtfully. We’re good friends and we work in an informal environment, but we also take executing on our vision very seriously.

Now is the right time for Station A. Clean energy represents a fraction of the global energy supply. The world’s countries and major companies are setting more aggressive clean energy targets than ever before, while clean energy solutions are getting better and cheaper, fast.

Station A’s mission has never been more relevant or more critical.

A clean energy transition is good for humanity: it will create 21st century jobs and undercut the harmful influence of fossil fuels on global politics. It’s also necessary for maintaining life as we know it, as any realistic plan to stop climate change includes decarbonizing the electric system.

This is the beginning of a long journey, and we’re excited to set out on it. You can access Station A today at stationa.com and you can contact us at info@stationa.com. We’d love to hear from you.

Power up,

Kevin, Jeremy, Manos, and Sam