First-of-its-kind platform will operate under new business unit led by group of industry veterans with enterprise sales and SaaS experience
Enables corporate partners to sell clean energy solutions to residential customers through their existing sales channels
CHARLESTON, SC (Sept. 21, 2022) — Palmetto, the leading clean energy technology company, today announced the launch of a new enterprise platform offering that makes it easier for consumer brands, utilities, and other enterprise businesses to offer clean energy solutions to their consumers.
"In today's economy, managing a company's environmental impact and carbon footprint is no longer just about meeting ESG standards, but will have a growing impact on business models with the onsets of decarbonization goals, energy transition incentives, and other climate policies. Our new Clean Energy Software Platform gives businesses a single, comprehensive solution in this new reality," said Christopher Kemper, CEO of Palmetto.
Operating under a newly launched software and data focused business unit, Palmetto's Clean Energy Software Platform will partner with organizations that already serve residential consumers, such as real estate development and mortgage companies, consumer lenders, home improvement retailers, electric utilities, and financial services platforms. The enterprise business unit will help its partners and clients achieve net zero decarbonization targets, increase customer lifetime value, and prepare them to enter the clean energy markets, particularly as new policies and legislation, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, makes renewables an attractive business segment and consumer offering.
Kemper continued, "In the same way Shopify provides everything you need to start a business – procurement, inventory management, marketing, payments, shipping/logistics – Palmetto is extending its offering to enterprises, enabling businesses and retail platforms alike to sell clean energy products and solutions. This will not only significantly expand Palmetto's footprint to end consumers, but in doing so, accelerate clean energy adoption across the country."
Palmetto's enterprise solutions are expected to accelerate the company's already strong growth trajectory. In the second quarter of 2022, Palmetto's total revenue was up 138% YoY, driven by strong solar sales growth of 145% YoY.
Palmetto's Clean Energy Software Platform
Palmetto makes it easy for individuals, small businesses, and now large corporations to access and grow in the clean energy economy. For example, in the instance of rooftop solar, Palmetto's clean energy platform offers one end-to-end, digital solution for everything a consumer needs from education, solar potential estimates, design, engineering, and financing the rooftop system, procuring the panels and other supplies, identifying and contracting qualified installers, facilitating permitting and inspection, and providing service and maintenance for the lifetime of the product.
For consumers, this experience removes the friction typically associated with a rooftop solar purchase or similar large-scale home installations. For Palmetto's enterprise partners, they are able to access the rapidly growing clean energy market without the burden of understanding local market requirements, integrating with utility interconnection processes, or building a national fulfillment network. In addition, Palmetto's energy intelligence helps enterprise businesses assess the solar potential of markets, segment local communities by solar potential and do customer targeting, and even model the energy usage and solar potential at the building level using proprietary, high resolution, geospatial 3D LiDAR technology.
To both the buyer and seller, Palmetto can operate as a white labeled solution, which enables the enterprise to maintain their brand trust and consumer loyalty. The company has already initiated partnerships with leading enterprises, including Exelon, Energy Trust, Enerflo, and Commonwealth Edison.
Kemper added, "Residential clean energy can be a tough business to break into, and we believe today's U.S. rooftop solar adoption – only ~3% of U.S. homes – is largely indicative of the disjointed and difficult customer experience. By making solar adoption as easy and seamless as buying a new home appliance, Palmetto is uniquely positioned to accelerate clean energy adoption at a time when the world needs it most. We are enabling sellers to do what they do best – lead generation and selling products – while Palmetto handles the rest."
New Leadership Additions
In conjunction with the formation of the new business unit, Palmetto has assembled a world-class team of enterprise and SaaS executives, including:
- Lisa Rockefeller, Executive Vice President of Corporate Sales
- Benjamin Black, Executive Vice President of Platform Engineering
- Dana Bowlin, Senior Vice President of Fulfillment Platform
- Tiffany Menhorn, Vice President of Utility Solutions
- Phil Schrieber, Senior Director of Corporate Sales
- Dan Schultz, Senior Director of Corporate Sales
In her new role, Rockefeller is focused on driving revenue growth through innovative go-to-market and commercialization strategies. She will lead a team focused on building relationships with enterprise and utility partners who are committed to driving the adoption of renewable energy technologies across North America. She brings more than a decade of enterprise sales leadership in the clean tech industry, most recently at Enel X, a global leader in energy transition solutions.
Rockefeller said, "Solar is one of the easiest ways people can blunt their personal contribution to climate change and is becoming more affordable than ever before. Yet, the mass adoption curve has been handicapped by the high-friction, high-cost constraints of the existing solar sales model. Palmetto has created an unrivaled platform to accelerate the transition to renewable power and knock down barriers to entry for consumers. I am excited to help leading organizations in North America catalyze the shift to renewable energy through strategic partnerships with Palmetto and our world class team of change-makers."
Details on Palmetto's Enterprise Solutions
Palmetto will offer partnership structures that are best suited for each enterprise:
- Referral and Reseller Partnerships. Help enterprise partners launch new offerings and sell solar to their existing customers with a turnkey, end-to-end solution
- Recurring Platform Subscription Partnerships. Access to Palmetto's energy intelligence, enterprise businesses and electric utilities looking to plan and model tactics to achieve net zero targets, educate consumers on their solar potential, and drive market-level and energy efficiency solar achievement goals.
Executive Vice President of Energy Intelligence, Eduardo Berlin, said, "Utilities and energy providers across the country are amidst a much-needed modernization, including the ability to track, measure, and use data to make smarter decisions on behalf of themselves and their customers. Palmetto's energy intelligence uses proprietary technology to provide accurate, context-aware, customized, and actionable data to corporate partners. The user experiences are intuitive, providing insights via detailed information and compelling visual feedback. Our deep technology group works with expansive proprietary data sets that can readily be transformed into a sustainable clean energy action plan."
For the 78 million U.S. households that don't yet own or lease a solar energy system, Palmetto offers a seamless, national fulfillment network, servicing homeowners with local sales and installation specialists to advance the clean energy economy in communities across the nation. Palmetto's energy intelligence simulates and models the solar potential and energy load profiles for 84% of rooftops in the U.S., including local requirements for 130+ utility service areas, plus demographic, market and building level data.
About Palmetto
Palmetto believes that access to clean energy sources is a right, not a privilege. They make it easier and more affordable for homeowners to source their energy from renewables like solar power. Palmetto enables brands entering or growing within the residential clean energy market to generate new revenue streams and establish/expand their decarbonization goals for continued impact and growth through their Clean Energy Software Platform. The Charleston-based company was awarded Most Forward-Thinking Contractor by Solar Power World in 2022. Palmetto's Get-Solar, Give-Solar program provides underserved communities across sub-Saharan Africa with access to clean energy. Palmetto is a triple bottom line, fully distributed company with teammates throughout the United States. For more information, please visit https://palmetto.com/partners.