Solar energy is booming, and that's good news for Glint Solar. Norwegian Software-as-a-Service startup helps energy giants and large-scale solar developers such as E.ON, Recurrent Energy and Statkraft reduce the time it takes to plan and pre-engineer solar installations We've built a platform to help you accelerate. Toward renewable energy.
Glint's software ingests data from multiple sources to speed the evaluation of solar projects. The platform features adaptable layout design and yield estimation, as well as country-specific geographic information system (GIS) data and terrain analysis to help solar developers easily evaluate potential sites. Cloud-based collaboration features give your team access to critical project data. The platform can also be used as a project presentation aid by providing 3D rendered project layouts in “seconds”.
CEO and co-founder Harald Olderheim said the last time TechCrunch spoke with the climate startup was in June 2022, when the company closed a $3 million seed round and since then, its customer base has grown to almost It is said to have increased 10 times. The company has now announced an $8 million Series A as it continues to stoke the flames of growth by expanding into more markets in Europe.
Currently, the company's main customer regions are France, Germany, Scandinavia, and the UK, but with the new funding, the SaaS, which launched in March 2020, will expand its sales team to include “the rest of Europe” including Italy and Spain. It plans to target customers of says Olderheim.
One notable change since Glint Solar's launch is that it has narrowed its service proposition to support the planning of land-based solar installations. Until now, we have stopped focusing on our two previous products, which also included floating solar installations.
Olderheim said the software can continue to be used for floating solar power planning. However, he pointed out that there is more demand for ground-based installations. “This is a bigger market,” he said, explaining why he chose to streamline his sales approach.
Glint Solar also doesn't focus on rooftop solar installations. Alderheim said some of his customers are using the company's software to help plan solar arrays on “big rooftops.” However, once again, the reason the company is not focusing on that is because it is targeting the area with the greatest demand.
“If you look at the market, about 60 percent of the market is large utilities, and about 20 percent is large rooftops, and 20 percent is residential. So we're aiming for the largest market.” he told TechCrunch. “If you want to make a big impact in the world, you can do it at a utility scale, because it's much faster to scale up.” [solar] world energy.
“If you think about the impact we're having with one solar power plant, a large solar power plant with 10 megawatts, maybe 7,000 or 15,000 solar panels, that's going to rapidly grow energy production. It's a very efficient way to do that.”
growing influence
Another big focus of the Series A capital infusion is product development. Olderheim said the startup will expand its platform to allow customers to plan where to install batteries that can be used to optimize investments in renewable energy by storing energy.
According to Olderheim, factors such as grid capacity, protected area, and sound (because batteries make some noise when they operate) are all considerations that the software can take into account to ensure the batteries are compatible. We also provide support to help you deliver this to your customers. We proposed a solar array and assisted in sharing information with landowners as they worked to obtain the necessary permits.
Image credit: Glint Solar
He highlighted how much the cost of solar installations has come down over the past decade (by about 90%). But he also said the project is still not progressing as fast as it needs to, given the existential threat posed by global warming, which is causing a wave of disasters, from devastating floods and hurricanes to heat waves, droughts and forest fires. He also says that there is no.
“It takes time to get all the agreements with landowners, the grid and municipalities. [deliver a solar project] And all these processes take time. That’s one of the reasons we do Glint Solar,” he added.
The startup focuses on software design that maximizes accessibility as another tactic to remove the friction associated with approving solar projects.
“Everyone on the team can use one software together to tackle this problem. [project delivery] It will be much faster. And you can share everything with landowners, the power grid, and municipalities, making it easier to make decisions faster and with lower risk. ”
According to Alderheim, the platform has multiple “modules” that allow the same person to “assess the site, organize all the projects and design the solar park,” allowing project teams to The company supports the release of applications into the world.
He also mentioned the platform's cloud-based collaboration features that allow everyone to work “with the same tools,” suggesting this could help give it an edge over other tools.
Grint says its customers report that its SaaS triples the project pipeline for solar developers on average and enables them to evaluate potential sites 10 times faster than traditional methods.
Of course, there are limits to what software can do. Olderheim agreed that infrastructure investment and regulatory reform are key to further accelerating the adoption of solar power, citing grid capacity and solar permitting as key areas for lawmakers to address.
“In some cases, it can take five years to complete.” [project] We need to start building,” he noted, adding: “I know the EU is considering shortening this to 12 or 24 months, so I think that would be a very good thing. [start]”
Glint Solar's Series A was led by Smedvig Ventures, with additional investments from Antler Nordic and Antler Elevate, Futurum Ventures, and Momentum.
Jonathan Lerner, partner at Smedvig Ventures, said in a statement: This is the gap that Glint Solar is filling. As one of the first integrated products for utility projects on the market, solar developers, engineers, analysts, and managers now find everything they need to quickly and accurately find the optimal land space. You can. This is a much-needed evolution from manually trawling data from multiple sources and can save significant resources in critical green energy projects. ”