Since its founding some seven years ago, BlocPower has completed about 1200 energy efficiency and electrification projects for municipalities, utilities, and property owners. The clean tech company founded by Donnel Baird in 2014 was recently named the fourth most innovative company by Fast Company for its decarbonization platform to green existing commercial and residential buildings in the U.S.
According to BlocPower COO Jon Moeller, BlocPower’s unique platform often focuses on low and middle income areas, providing an important financial as well as environmental and health benefits to property owners and residents. With BlocPower’s electrification efforts, Moeller says they are “Trying to turn buildings into Teslas and Priuses” by replacing natural gas, propane, and fuel oil with air source heat pumps, solar installations, electric ovens and dryers, and LED lighting.
The benefits to the property owner are utility bill savings, improvement of indoor air quality, reliable heating and cooling, enhanced resident comfort and health, in addition to the significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. BlocPower, which is backed by some of the world’s top investors—including Goldman Sachs, Kapor Capital, and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund—also offers attractive green financing for low and moderate income projects.
In addition to its electrification, efficiency, and renewable energy projects, BlocPower also has a robust clean energy workforce development program—called the Civilian Climate Corps— that provides foundational, specialized, and onsite training for workers who wish to transition to clean energy projects. The program, says Moeller, is uniquely positioned to address economic, environmental, and racial injustices. To date, the program has trained more than 1200 workers, placed more than 200 trained workers, and hosts more than 40 work sites. In addition, 82% of the trained participants were previously unemployed and 27% of the participants are women, which is much higher than the typical construction site.
While the majority of BlocPower’s projects range from small commercial to multifamily property owners, the company was recently retained by Ithaca, New York, which voted to decarbonize every single building in the city. By making this commitment, Ithaca will be addressing 40% of the city’s carbon emissions and creating approximately 400 jobs.
For more information about BlocPower and their work, visit: BlocPower.io To view Jon Moeller’s presentation, please visit NCCCA’s YouTube Channel.