Perch Energy discusses growth prospects for community solar platforms

Perch Energy has fully subscribed more than 100 community solar projects and they anticipate doubling that number over the next two years, said Bruce Stewart, President and CEO, in an interview with NPM.*

“We have been scaling and growing the business. Making sure we have good operating teams, sales teams, and acquisition channels,” Stewart said.

As reported, Perch Energy is a community solar servicer spun out of BlueWave in 2021 as the developer opted to focus exclusively on growing its development portfolio.

In March 2021, Perch also raised USD 7.2m in Series A funds to support the anticipated growth of its services and management platform. The round was led by Arborview Capital, according to a press release. The company brought aboard Stewart as its new CEO in conjunction with the fund raise announcement.

Perch is now ramping up their fundraising efforts for a Series B, a company spokesperson told NPM, without providing additional details.

Partners

Perch currently partners with about 15 of the biggest players in the community solar industry, including Standard Solar, DSD Renewables, Amp Energy, and Navisun.

“We’re focused on partnering with developers and asset owners to help them achieve success on their projects,” Stewart said. “We can expand with them across all the markets where community solar is enabled.”

Perch has fully subscribed projects in Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Washington D.C., according to Stewart. And they’re expanding into new markets including New Mexico, Illinois, Delaware, and Virginia, where they’re currently supporting developers bidding for projects. Stewart anticipates they will also eventually spread into California thanks to the September 2022 passage of Assembly Bill 2316, which was crafted to specifically kickstart the community solar program in the state after multiple stalled efforts.

Perch’s customer acquisition strategy covers multiple sales channels and has resulted in a nearly perfect community solar subscription fill rate. It is not uncommon for them to have waitlists for projects they are subscribing, Stewart said.

IRA2022 Impact

An emerging area of focus for Perch is the requirement to subscribe large portions of LMI customers following the passage of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Perch is focused on making some adjustments to satisfy the shift, according to Stewart.

We’re adjusting customer care and management to find ways to better assist customers that are more budget conscious, and who are more likely to have changes in their subscriber status over the 25 plus year life cycle of the subscription, Stewart said.

Finding ways to identify LMI customers will also be a new focus. While some can be identified through other LMI programs, Perch is working on documentation to identify customers that may not be enrolled in other LMI programs. They’ll also need to find ways to identify LMI customers already subscribed to projects, according to Stewart.

“You just have to adjust your approaches for how you bring customers on and keep customers on these projects,” Stewart said.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.


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