Efforce is securitizing future energy savings from energy efficiency projects and creating a marketplace for them as a digital asset.⁴ Although you can’t buy that digital asset everywhere (like the US), initial trading showed quite high demand: in December the initial token offering hit a market cap of $950 million in 13 minutes – 10x the offering price.
The Efforce business model is described as follows:
First, the ESCO registers an energy efficiency project on the Efforce marketplace—including evaluating the investment need, calculating the anticipated return, and creating an EPC that details the savings and the duration of the returns the building owner will keep and the returns that investors will get. The project is then “validated by Efforce”.
Efforce then lists the project for “crowd contribution” where participants may buy into the project using fractional or whole WOZX cryptocurrency tokens. The contractor is then paid to do the work when the project is fully funded.
After it’s complete, Efforce “measures energy savings on these projects through smart meters attached to the blockchain”. 👀 👀 The savings data are then loaded to each investor’s profile as an energy credit for use or sale by the investor.
The thesis is that the energy performance contracting (EPC) model can be unleased much more broadly, finally extending beyond large, public sector buildings. Think: small buildings, which make up most of our building fleet and have largely been untouched by energy services companies (ESCOs) doing deeper energy retrofits.
The win-win-win: The building owner gets the building improvements at no cost, keeps some of the savings, and decreases their GHG emissions. The ESCO has an easier sale and doesn’t need to go to a bank for financing. The investor can put their money to work in a way that mitigates climate change. (Almost forgot: and Efforce as the platform takes a cut).
Efforce’s core team runs an Italian ESCO, so they probably do know a thing or two.
Comments