Lumen Energy unveils revolutionary Automated Power Purchase Agreement (AutoPPA™) to decarbonize buildings, closes $11M in Series A funding
Today, Lumen Energy unveils the AutoPPA™, a new software product that unlocks hidden income for millions of commercial buildings across the United States. Lumen Energy’s software automatically identifies the optimal clean energy system for each property in a building owner’s portfolio, and delivers a personalized Power Purchase Agreement for every qualifying building. Building owners can get their actionable offers for free at getlumen.com.
This announcement coincides with the company's successful close of an $11 million Series A funding round from Lowercarbon Capital, Ajax, Designer Fund, and real estate heavyweights Nuveen and Bridge Investment Group.
Institutionally owned real estate, the largest asset class in the world, faces mounting pressure to reduce its current 26% share of energy-related carbon emissions1. Tenants, regulators, and investors want building owners to transition to zero-carbon energy. In the last decade, solar technology costs fell 90 percent. Combined with a new wave of federal and state policies, on-site solar is now often the most profitable choice to power commercial properties. But, the traditional process for owners to determine the right systems for their buildings has been painfully slow and complex. Building owners have been forced to navigate a maze of consultants and bespoke engineering evaluations for each property, one-at-a time. Financing these projects has been equally convoluted and laden with one-off fees.
Lumen Energy’s AutoPPA™ is the solution. All the complex math and underwriting is done in the background, so owners can effortlessly evaluate personalized offers for the full development, deployment and operation of on-site clean energy systems, so owners can cut carbon and make money. The AutoPPA™ produces new net operating income (NOI), a key metric to increase building value, by replacing future utility grid expenditures with predictable contract payments, and requires zero upfront capital. The AutoPPA™ begins by financing solar and batteries, which operate in unison to generate fresh cash for building owners.
“We know solar can be accretive to a growing number of properties as a clean energy solution,” said Rachel Diller, Co-Chief Investment Officer for the Bridge Workforce and Affordable Housing strategy. “We were very pleased to discover a way to quickly install solar on qualified multifamily properties and see immediate savings both in our property management costs and for our residents' utility bills — all for $0 CapEx.”
Lumen Energy’s software fuses supercomputer outputs, diverse data sets, and live market pricing intelligence to produce CFO-ready cash flow models optimized for investors. The company’s software is used by premiere commercial real estate leaders like Hines, Bridge Investment Group, Tishman Speyer, and Lineage Logistics on their journey to net-zero carbon.
“The best real estate operators want the best buildings,” said Peter Light, CEO and Co-Founder of Lumen Energy. ”It’s now often profitable to displace expensive utility electricity with zero-carbon energy. Sunlight is free. Yet historically, it’s been maddeningly complex to figure out the technology economics and take action at scale. Lumen Energy is delighted to make it simple for building owners to upgrade their portfolio, and generate new income with no capital outlay.”
Recently recognized by the Urban Land Institute (ULI)’s Greenprint Program, the Lumen Platform simplifies the complex journey towards adopting solar energy. Lumen Energy makes it effortless for asset managers to instantly learn where and how to generate the most value, and then take action.
With Lumen Energy's platform, commercial real estate stakeholders can upgrade their properties with clean energy, and lead the world towards a sustainable future.
Source: 1 International Energy Agency: https://www.iea.org/energy-system/buildings
Media Inquiries: media@lumen.energy
About Lumen Energy
Lumen Energy was founded to make it possible for millions of buildings to benefit from clean energy technologies that are both profitable and open society’s door to a sustainable future. The company empowers commercial building owners to generate new income from clean energy with precision, speed, and simplicity across their entire portfolios.