Optony is committed to real change at the ground level. The following programs demonstrate our successful track record of driving significant improvements to clean energy market conditions in order to make technology deployment easier, faster and more affordable. An enhanced business environment for smart technologies enables local governments, higher education institutions, and commercial enterprises to capture the full economic and environmental benefits of clean energy in their communities.
Selected Projects
Sustainable Energy Roadmap for California’s San Joaquin Valley
The Sustainable Energy Roadmap (SER) project is a regional planning effort brings together municipal governments, regional planning agencies, community stakeholders, and technical experts to support San Joaquin Valley communities as they pursue smart growth strategies, related to efficient building portfolios, resilient energy supplies, and low-carbon transportation, among others. SER is supported by California’s Strategic Growth Council.
Solar Market Pathways for Independent Colleges in Virginia
The Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia’s (CICV) Solar Market Pathways project is bringing together private colleges from across Virginia to create a Solar Master Plan to guide solar deployment on their campuses, with a goal of installing 30 megawatts (MW) of distributed solar generation by 2020 through a series of collaborative procurements. The project is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative.
Regional Renewable Energy Procurement in the San Francisco Bay Area
The Regional Renewable Energy Procurement Project is the nation’s largest multi-agency collaborative solar procurement to date. Alameda County led a group of 19 governmental agencies in four counties across the San Francisco Bay Area to solicit 31 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy. Participants are expected to save $108M and projects are expected to generate $70M+ in local economic activity and 300+ jobs.
Sustainable Energy Business Districts in China
The Sustainable Energy Business Districts (SEBIZ) project addresses China’s surging urban energy needs at the city level by deploying a proven and successful public-private partnership collaboration model. The SEBIZ program uses a portfolio approach to clean energy technology deployment by coupling technical assistance with applied policy development at the local and national levels, using targeted business districts to build scale for distributed projects.
Solar Energy & Economic Development (SEED) Fund
The Solar Energy & Economic Development (SEED) Fund project leverages regional funding (e.g. grants, community investments) to defer upfront allocation of funds for project planning, site assessments, or procurement activities; these costs will be paid back through solar contracts that are developed with vendors to create a revolving fund for future work, so participants can fully evaluate their opportunities and costs before committing any resources.
Solarize Central New York (CNY)
Solarize CNY is a grassroots community solar initiative for the counties of Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego in upstate New York. Through popular education and by combining the purchasing power of our community, we are helping to shift our region to sustainable energy. Solarize CNY builds off the successful effort of Solarize Syracuse, which more than doubled the amount of residential solar installed in the Greater Syracuse area in 2014.