Decarbonizing Commercial Real Estate with Lumen Energy
This podcast originally appeared in My Climate Journey Collective.
Peter Light is the CEO and Co-founder of Lumen Energy. Lumen Energy's software enables commercial real estate portfolio managers to identify the optimal clean energy mix for their buildings, then deploy via their marketplace. Lumen's Auto PPA product automatically generates power purchase agreements via software, eliminating the drudgery of bespoke underwriting.
In this conversation, Peter notes that many companies want to improve portfolio emissions for competitiveness but don't know where to start or invest in building-by-building analysis. He explains how energy responsibilities vary by lease and tenant type, and touches upon the motivation behind pursuing clean energy projects, all while drawing from his extensive experience in the clean energy sector.
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Episode recorded on Oct 6, 2023 (Published on Oct 26, 2023)
In this episode, we cover:
- [02:38]: Peter's perspective on addressing climate problems
- [05:37]: His background in clean energy
- [14:44]: How he met his Lumen co-founder Dave through the MCJ community
- [18:22]: Overview of difference in energy billing structures by building type
- [20:43]: Increasing demands from investors and tenants to decarbonize buildings
- [28:45]: Key actors in commercial real estate decarbonization
- [30:00]: Lumen’s customer base
- [37:32]: Details of Lumen's financial modeling software for buildings
- [40:05]: Lumen's use of public data to provide initial analysis for customers
- [41:45]: The company's AutoPPA product for streamlined PPAs across portfolios
- [47:39]: Lumen's Series A and current priorities