Spark AI (YC W24)

🧳 In March, we visited our customer Standard Solar's headquarters in Rockville, Maryland! Standard Solar, a Brookfield Renewable company, is powering the nation's energy transformation by delivering the benefits of solar and storage to businesses, institutions, farms, governments, communities, and utilities. Their impressive portfolio includes ownership and operation of more than 300 MW of solar across the US. We're honored that Standard Solar became one of the earliest adopters of Spark's document intelligence product, thanks to the initiative from leaders like Alexandra Huber, MBA and Patrick Chandler II. Using Spark, one team member was able to finish an analysis in ~3 days that otherwise would have taken 3 weeks. 🛠️ This is exactly why we built Spark—to help leading developers like Standard Solar cut through the complexity and repeatable work in renewable energy development and focus on what matters: building and operating clean energy infrastructure at scale.

🌏 Exciting News! We're presenting at the upcoming Climatebase Virtual Job Fair during SF Climate Week. Join us to learn about our mission, culture, and Software Engineer role! 📅 Event Date: Wednesday, April 23rd ⏰ 9:00 AM PT RSVP link in the comments

💡 Product Update: We have been deploying the state of the art to scrape and index zoning ordinances nationwide. We’re pleased to share that in-depth zoning analysis is now available in beta to Spark users! 🤕 Developers state that finding and interpreting zoning ordinances is one of the most cumbersome parts of site diligence. 🔎 Use Spark to find and unpack the zoning rules in an Authority Having Jurisdiction: - Last amendment to the ordinance - Definitions and mentions of solar - Districts permitting solar - Performance requirements

Zoning data is messy, fragmented, and often hidden—but it’s mission-critical for renewable energy development. In this piece, we unpack why zoning data is so hard to get right, how it stalls solar and storage projects, and what better tools can do to fix it and accelerate clean energy deployment.

🚢 New Feature Alert: Township Level Search and Battery Storage! For the past month, our team has been hard at work to launch a widely requested update: search at the township level! ✨ We've also extended our coverage of Battery Storage related results, for the BESS folks out there. Link to details in the comments!

🗞️ New SparkNotes Release! Despite policy shifts, Spark AI’s Anuj Saigal argues that the solar ITC remains more secure than some developers fear. Drawing on experience at SunEdison and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), he outlines the history and prospects of the ITC. 🔑 Key Takeaways: 1. Executive orders can’t eliminate statutory tax credits 2. Projects can still “pencil” financially 3. There isn't political will to repeal the ITC/PTC, as credits benefit many districts that are also right-leaning Read the full analysis: https://lnkd.in/edQ_7Evm Are you seeing project delays or slowdown due to ITC concerns? Share below.

Spark AI (YC W24) is hiring a Full Stack Software Engineer! - We help energy companies deploy solar and battery farms faster, powering millions of homes and businesses a year - We build AI agents, using techniques like RAG and agentic web browsing for data extraction - We’re a team of engineers from Tesla, Brex, and Google. You’ll get to work with ambitious and passionate people and make an impact in the energy industry! If this excites you, apply thru the link in the comments!

And it's a wrap for RE+ Northeast! The Spark Team had a jam-packed 72 hours in Boston. We pitched and demo’d new features, spent precious face time time with customers & prospects including Colliers Engineering & Design, 38 Degrees North and Standard Solar, and hosted a warm cocktail reception with Colliers and Matt Shinsky. We are tremendously grateful to our partners, and the opportunity to show up together at the same conference a year after we met. 🤝 And it was our first mini offsite as a team! Shoutout to Tae Hoon Kim and Kathy Li from our engineering team who wore the sales hat for a few days. We've all come a long way since the last RE+ Events. Until the next one!

We'll be at RE+ Northeast in Boston next week, with new product announcements and cocktails for utility and distributed-scale solar + storage developers. Reach out for an invite! ⚡️

🚢 New Feature Alert: Intelligent Zoning Details in Spark Reports We've been hearing more about the importance of finding applicable zoning documents and surfacing key information from within them. To that end, we've released new improvements for zoning data: - New card showing key solar definitions and requirements from zoning ordinances - Intelligent AHJ detection: Automatically pulls correct township/county ordinance - Direct extraction of solar-specific allowances and definitions This update helps you quickly understand local zoning requirements without manual document review. Available now in Reports ✨