Project Title: RPM Asset Management Platform (AMP)
Funding Opportunity: SunShot Technology to Market (Incubator 10)
SunShot Subprogram: Technology to Market
Location: Oakland, CA
Amount Awarded: $500,000
Awardee Cost Share: $125,000
Project Investigator: Aaron Iverson

Ra Power Management, Inc. (RPM) is developing a cloud-based software platform that manages the financial and operational functions of third-party financed solar projects throughout their lifecycles. RPM’s software streamlines and automates the sales, financing, and management of a portfolio of solar assets. The software will help solar developers automate the most difficult aspects of asset management, leading to increased accuracy, transparency, and efficiency. More importantly, the platform will help developers save money by improving their operating margins.

Approach

A well designed, scalable, and fully integrated solar management platform is needed in order for third-party financed solar to be widely adopted. With the addition of solar lease securitization, the need is even greater for timely, accurate financial information for investors, auditors, and regulators. The RPM platform offers an all-in-one solution by integrating multiple types of data, including contract and performance data, at the individual project level, along with federal, state, and local incentive data, and financing models. The analytics platform enables solar developers to determine the value of assets, price contracts, track financial and operational performance, and drill down when performance deviates from predicted outcomes.

Innovation

The software platform for pricing, asset management, reporting, operations and maintenance, and due diligence will optimize and streamline the operations associated with financing and managing third-party financed solar projects. It will provide the capability to manage the financial and operational lifecycle of solar projects from start to finish, including: generating contract pricing bids, serving as a central repository for previously distinct data sets, calculating financing valuations for fund deployment, and generating a full suite of reports and analytics. Ultimately, it will drive down the cost of financing and managing solar assets, resulting in a lowered cost of capital and lower energy costs for the end customer.