Startup WattCarbon has raised $4.5 million in a seed round to launch a 24/7 carbon-free energy marketplace.
The Net Zero 24/7 Carbon Free Energy Market allows customers to offset their energy use on a time and locational basis from renewable energy projects, demand response dispatch, and electrification projects sourced from their own communities, turning local buildings into decarbonization assets.
WattCarbon customers can either source 24/7 carbon-free energy locally or from clean sources located on the dirtiest grids to maximize impact.
“We are excited to launch a service that actually makes net zero energy immediately possible for any organization," WattCarbon CEO McGee Young said.
Participating suppliers in the WattCarbon market include renewable energy developers like Pivot Energy, demand response aggregators like Leap Energy, energy retailers like Branch Energy, and electrification companies like Elephant Energy.
Early-stage venture capital firm True Ventures led the WattCarbon seed round.
Google has been carbon-neutral since 2007 through carbon offsets, and was one of the first companies to purchase renewable energy directly through PPAs in 2017. The company is now in the process of transitioning from 100% annual renewable energy matching to 24/7 matching by 2030.(Courtesy: Pawel Czerwinski/Unsplash) The importance of 24/7 carbon-free energy has come into focus in large part due to the work of large clean energy buyers like Google and Microsoft. Having already achieved their net-zero targets, the companies are procuring clean energy based on hourly load matching that truly reflects their impact on the grid.
Google recently launched an effort with a global network of mayors to advance the 24/7 carbon-free energy mission.
Companies like Clearloop, a subsidiary of the utility-scale solar developer Silicon Ranch, are developing clean energy projects on the dirtiest grids in pursuit of that mission.
PODCAST: Clearloop CEO and co-founder Laura Zapata joined the Factor This! podcast to discuss emissionality and her company's effort to clean up the dirtiest grids. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Using WattTime analysis and the concept of "emissionality," Clearloop sites projects where they can have the greatest impact. Their efforts began in the Southeast, home to what some of the country's dirtiest grids.
For example, Tennessee’s grid is powered by just 0.4% solar, and a megawatt-hour of electricity in Tennessee emits around 32% more carbon than a megawatt-hour in northern California, according to WattTime.
