Sparky Glossary

Terms used across the deep-research passes · 2026-07-12

French regs Copropriété roles FR orgs & incumbents Data sources & tools Technical (solar/HP) US grid US utility rates Business & finance Germany / UK Companies referenced

French regulations, programs & subsidies

ADEME Agence de l'environnement et de la maîtrise de l'énergie: French national environment & energy agency; runs programs, publishes methodology, funds research. Roughly equivalent to a US DOE + EPA hybrid at the technical level.
ANAH Agence nationale de l'habitat: National housing agency that operates MaPrimeRénov' (the main renovation subsidy program) and holds the RNIC copropriété registry.
APER (loi) Accélération de la Production d'Énergies Renouvelables: Law of 10 March 2023. Key impact for Sparky: lowered the AG vote threshold for rooftop/façade/railing solar in copropriétés from absolute majority (Article 25) to simple majority (Article 24).
ATEE Association Technique Énergie Environnement: Professional association for energy-efficiency practitioners. Runs Club C2E, the main CEE working group. One of the best channels to reach BETs organically.
BAR-TH-104 / 171 / 172: Specific CEE fiche codes for heat pump installations. BAR-TH-104 was killed 1 Jan 2024 and split into BAR-TH-171 (air-water) and 172 (geothermal). "BAR" = résidentiel (bâtiment résidentiel), "TH" = thermique.
Bailleur social: Social-housing landlord. Owns and manages HLM (social housing) blocks. Represents ~25% of Paris housing stock.
CAPEB Confédération de l'Artisanat et des Petites Entreprises du Bâtiment: Trade union / association for small building-trades businesses. Co-produced PAC'Réno (the neutral heat-pump sizing tool).
Cadastre: Official French land registry. cadastre.data.gouv.fr publishes parcel boundaries and building geometry as open data.
CEE Certificats d'Économie d'Énergie: France's energy efficiency obligation scheme. Energy suppliers ("obligated parties") must generate certificates by financing renovation works, or buy certificates from others. €4-5B/yr in transacted value.
CEE Coup de Pouce: Bonus tier within CEE for specific priority actions (e.g. replacing oil boilers with heat pumps). Provides €3,000-5,800/install in top-up premiums for modest households.
CEE fiche: Standardized template describing an eligible energy-saving action and the certificates it earns. Fiches are periodically added, modified, or suppressed by arrêté ministériel.
CEE Period P5 / P6: Multi-year obligation cycles. P5 = 2022-2025 (~€6B envelope). P6 = 2026-2030 (~€8B, +35%, 5,250 TWhc total obligation).
Classique vs Précarité (CEE): Two CEE certificate tiers. Précarité certificates fund works for low-income households and trade at ~2x the price of classique (€16-17/MWhc vs €8-9/MWhc).
Cour des Comptes: France's national audit court. March 2025 report found only ~1/3 of delivered CEE certificates represent additional real energy savings.
Délégataire: Middleman company aggregating CEE certificates. Pays installers for their work, files dossiers with PNCEE, sells resulting certificates to obligated parties. Main players: Hellio, Sonergia, GEO PLC, Effy, Teksial. Captures the 15-25% spread that's Sparky's opportunity.
DGCCRF Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes: France's consumer-protection and antifraud regulator. Publishes annual controls of renovation-sector fraud (34% anomaly rate in 2024).
DGEC Direction Générale de l'Énergie et du Climat: France's central energy & climate directorate under the Ministry. Sets CEE obligation levels and fiche standards.
DPE Diagnostic de Performance Énergétique: Energy performance certificate for a dwelling. Rated A (best) to G (worst). €100-250 for individual, €1,000-4,000 for a copropriété (DPE collectif).
DPE collectif: Copropriété-wide DPE. Now obligatory for buildings with construction permit pre-2013: >200 lots since Jan 2024, 50-200 lots since Jan 2025, ≤50 lots since Jan 2026.
Éco-PTZ Éco-Prêt à Taux Zéro: 0% state-backed renovation loan. Up to €50k/lot over 20 years for copropriété energy renovation.
EMMY: Central CEE registry / spot market where obligated parties transact certificates. Publishes weekly reference prices for classique and précarité fiches.
Fiches supprimées / modifiées: CEE fiches that get killed or altered by government arrêté. July 2025 arrêté: 10 suppressed, 6 modified. Small BETs can't keep templates current — the pain that a compliance SaaS solves.
France Rénov': Public portal (france-renov.gouv.fr) run by ADEME for homeowner renovation info. Hosts CoachCopro. Provides the official RGE installer directory.
HT / TTC: Hors Taxe / Toutes Taxes Comprises. "Pre-tax" vs "tax-included." Standard French invoicing convention. TVA (VAT) at 5.5% for eligible renovation works.
Loi 65-557 / 10 juillet 1965: The foundational French copropriété law. Defines AG vote thresholds (Articles 24, 25, 26), syndic obligations, and copropriété governance.
Loi Climat & Résilience (2021): 2021 climate law. Set the DPE F/G rental-ban timeline: G banned 1 Jan 2025, F banned 1 Jan 2028, E banned 1 Jan 2034.
MaPrimeRénov' (MPR): France's main homeowner renovation subsidy program. €3.29B in 2024 across 340k renovations. Suspended 1 Jan → 23 Feb 2026 during PLF vote. 2026 budget = €3.6B.
MPR' Copropriété (MPR' Copro): MPR sub-program for whole-building copropriété renovations. Subsidizes 30-75% of works, up to 100% with local aids. AMO service reimbursed up to €600/lot.
MTE Ministère de la Transition Écologique: France's Ministry of Ecological Transition. Publishes CEE bilans and controls the fiche catalog.
Obligé / Obligated party: Energy supplier legally required to generate CEE certificates. TotalEnergies, EDF, Engie, Leclerc Energies are the largest.
PLF Projet de Loi de Finances: Annual budget bill. If PLF isn't voted on time, dependent programs get suspended — as MPR was 1 Jan → 23 Feb 2026.
PLU Plan Local d'Urbanisme: Local urban plan. Paris's PLU imposes "harmonious integration" rules on rooftop photovoltaic installations.
PNCEE Pôle National des Certificats d'Économie d'Énergie: Government body that reviews and validates CEE dossiers filed by délégataires. Rejection rate ~20% of dossiers.
PPPT Plan Pluriannuel de Travaux: Multi-year works plan. Now obligatory for copropriétés >15 years old: >200 lots since Jan 2023, 51-200 lots since Jan 2024, ≤50 lots since Jan 2025.
PSMV Plan de Sauvegarde et de Mise en Valeur: Heritage-preservation plan governing SPR zones. Overrides the standard PLU with stricter aesthetic rules — the reason ABF review kills 10% of Paris PV projects.
Qualit'EnR / QualiPAC: Certifying body / heat-pump-specific RGE qualification. ~12,000 QualiPAC-certified installers in France (target: 30k by 2027 — the bottleneck).
RGE Reconnu Garant de l'Environnement: State-recognized renovation contractor label. Homeowners must use RGE contractors to qualify for MPR + CEE subsidies. Cost to obtain: €300-1,200 + 1-2 month wait.
RNIC Registre National d'Immatriculation des Copropriétés: Official ANAH-run registry of French copropriétés. 578k registered as of Q4 2025 (though ~873k total exist including small unregistered ones).
SPR Site Patrimonial Remarquable: Heritage-protected urban zone. Paris has two: Marais (126 ha, since 1964) and 7e (194 ha, since 2016). All alterations subject to binding ABF review.
TWhc / MWhc: Terawatt-hours / megawatt-hours "cumac" — the unit of CEE certificates. Represents lifetime energy savings from an action, discounted. Not the same as raw kWh.

Copropriété governance & roles

ABF Architectes des Bâtiments de France: State heritage architects. Review all alterations to buildings inside heritage perimeters. Paris has the highest ABF constraint level of all 8 Île-de-France departments — the reason rooftop PV is 3-9% viable vs 25% theoretical.
AG Assemblée Générale: Annual (or extraordinary) general assembly of the copropriété. All votes on works, budgets, and syndic contracts happen here. Missing the annual AG = lose a year on a renovation project.
AMO Assistance à Maîtrise d'Ouvrage: Project-management-assistance service for construction/renovation clients. Priced €300-800/lot in copropriété. Scope includes drafting AG resolutions and filing subsidy paperwork — exactly what our "AG action plan" would provide.
Article 24 / 25 / 26: Three majority thresholds in loi 65-557 for copropriété AG votes. 24 = simple majority of votes cast. 25 = absolute majority of all owners. 26 = double majority (2/3 owners + 3/4 tantièmes). Solar PV moved from 25 to 24 under loi APER.
Article 25-1 passerelle: Fallback mechanism: if a motion gets ≥1/3 tantièmes and majority of present owners on an Article 25 vote, it can be re-voted at Article 24 (simple majority) — effectively lowering the bar.
Bénévole / Syndic bénévole: Volunteer. A syndic bénévole is a copropriétaire volunteering to manage the copropriété instead of paying a professional syndic. Common in small buildings.
Conseil syndical (CS): Board of elected copropriétaires who oversee the syndic. The CS champion is usually the CS president or an activist member — the persona most likely to buy Sparky's tools.
Copropriétaire: Individual apartment owner within a copropriété.
Copropriété: The French legal structure for a multi-owner building. All French condominium-style buildings fall under this regime. ~13M residential lots across ~578k registered copros.
Fragile / Modeste / Très modeste / Intermédiaire: Income brackets used to size MPR aids. Très modeste gets the highest subsidy rates. "Copropriété fragile" designation (elevated collective aid) applies to buildings with financial distress or majority modeste ownership.
Mandataire: Company legally authorized to receive subsidy payments on the beneficiary's behalf. Hellio, Rénolib etc. act as mandataires for MPR/CEE — collecting the aid then handling reimbursement.
Millièmes / Tantièmes: Ownership shares in a copropriété, expressed in thousandths. Vote weights are usually proportional to tantièmes.
PMO Personne Morale Organisatrice: The legal entity organizing an autoconsommation collective (ACC) project. Usually the syndicat des copropriétaires.
Syndic: Professional building manager for a copropriété. Handles accounting, maintenance, and legal obligations. Fees are ~10-20% of what Matera charges for its neo-syndic model.
Syndicat des copropriétaires: The collective legal person constituted by all copropriétaires. The syndicat is the party that signs contracts (not the syndic, who represents it).

French orgs, aggregators & incumbents

Amoa.fr: Small French AMO simulator, essentially a Google Form producing a manual PDF. Weak product, confirms demand exists.
APC Agence Parisienne du Climat: Runs CoachCopro. Publishes newsletter reaching 36k registered copros / 1.4M logements. High-leverage partnership target.
APUR Atelier Parisien d'Urbanisme: Official Paris urban planning agency. Published Note 148 "Vers un cadastre solaire 2.0" (2019) — the authoritative source on Paris rooftop reality (3-9% real installable share).
ARC / UNARC Association des Responsables de Copropriété: Independent copropriétaire association, 13,000+ adhering syndicates covering ~1M lots. Publishes IRC. Direct channel to CS champions.
Autoconsommation collective (ACC): Legal mechanism allowing a building/neighborhood to consume electricity generated on-site collectively. 2 km radius (10 km sparse). Requires a PMO. Enogrid dominates the ACC software niche.
BâtiSource / Contrôle Devis Travaux / DevisMoinsCher / Ma Négo / etc.: Cluster of independent devis-check services in France. Some AI (BâtiSource, DevisMoinsCher), some human (Contrôle Devis Travaux). Ma Négo uses a 50/50 savings-share model. Fragmented, no dominant player.
Batiactu: Trade press for French building industry. ~2M monthly visitors, 950k newsletter subs. Pitch target for content marketing.
CoachCopro: Public tool run by APC (Agence Parisienne du Climat, now national). Free consultative service — requires conseiller callback, doesn't ship an instant scorecard.
Consuel: French agency issuing the electrical compliance certificate required before Enedis grid connection.
Effy: Largest French renovation aggregator. Founded 2008, bootstrapped 15 years, took €20M from Felix Capital in Mar 2023. 100k households/yr via 5,000 RGE artisans. Selected July 2026 as private operator for national heat pump social-leasing.
Enedis: France's national electricity distribution operator (formerly ERDF). Handles all grid connections. Owned by EDF but legally separated.
Enogrid: Only 100% dedicated autoconsommation collective software in France. 700+ clients, 600+ projects since 2018. Mixed model (SaaS + services + asset delegation via Circuits Verts subsidiary).
Habitatpresto: Lead-gen marketplace for renovation trades. Owned by Homeserve. 5,000+ RGE artisans paying €80-150/mo subscription.
Hellio: Major CEE délégataire and PAC aggregator. ~285-350 employees. €168.7M revenue (2024) but only €2M net profit — 1.2% margin.
IZI by EDF: EDF's turnkey renovation platform. 50,000 projects, 4.7/5 Trustpilot. One of 3 operators picked for national heat pump social-leasing.
Ithaque: French BET / Mon Accompagnateur Rénov'. Runs "Argos" — a B2B platform selling audit expertise to renovation pros. ~30 employees.
Karlia: French CRM + devis + prime-integration SaaS for RGE artisans, focused on CEE/MPR flow.
Kizeo Forms: On-site data capture SaaS: voice + photo + OCR to auto-fill CEE/MPR fields for RGE installers.
LICIEL: Dominant software for French diagnostiqueurs. Owns ~40% market share of DPE-production tools.
Matera: Neo-syndic disruptor. 3,000 client copropriétés, 150 employees, €45M raised (€35M Series B, Mubadala 2021). Pricing 10-20% of traditional syndic fees.
Mon Devis Sans Oublis: State-run devis compliance-checking tool (beta.gouv.fr).
PAC'Réno: Free neutral heat-pump sizing tool. Made by Profeel / CAPEB / AQC. Cross-vendor. The closest existing free tool to a "French Aurora for HP."
Papernest: French utility-switching platform. $78.2M ARR, 600k customers. VC-funded. Similar to Selectra but not bootstrapped.
Renolib: French CEE/MPR admin SaaS + mandataire. Handles paperwork + cash-advance for RGE artisans. Doesn't do thermal sizing.
Selectra: Country-specific energy-supplier comparison sites. Bootstrapped to €50M revenue by 2019, 37% YoY growth. Now in 17 countries.
Sonergia: Historical CEE délégataire under PNCEE. Covers residential, tertiary, industrial.
Vertuoz: Engie's vertically integrated CEE platform. Conflicted by design.
Vulko: French AI-quoting SaaS for artisans (heat pump / bois / etc). Auto-embeds MPR + CEE estimates. Doesn't do thermal calc.

Data sources, tools & APIs

BAN Base Adresse Nationale: Free French national address geocoding API (api-adresse.data.gouv.fr). Powers our Paris solar smoke test.
Bayou Energy: US utility-data aggregator. $0 for first 10 meters, $24/meter/yr after. ~66% US meter coverage. Enables customer interval-data ingestion without per-utility integration.
BDNB Base de Données Nationale des Bâtiments: Free French national buildings database. Includes estimated DPE class per building. Useful for a Copro Rénovation Score V0 without full per-building audit.
Cadastre: See French Regs.
Green Button (CMD / DMD): US standard for customer utility data access. CMD = Connect My Data (OAuth flow, third party pulls data). DMD = Download My Data (customer downloads CSV themselves, uploads to a tool). DMD is the zero-friction path for a solo dev.
IGN Institut Géographique National: France's national mapping agency. Publishes BD Topo (building footprints + heights) as open data — but bulk download typically requires an account.
NAESB ESPI: US technical standard underlying Green Button data exchange.
Overpass / OSM: OpenStreetMap query API. Free, no account. Returns building polygons + tags (building:levels, height) around any coordinate. Our fallback when IGN isn't accessible.
PVGIS Photovoltaic Geographical Information System: Free EU JRC API returning per-location solar irradiance and expected PV yield. Rate limit ~1 req/sec.
REopt (NREL): Free NREL API for behind-the-meter energy system sizing. Handles PV + battery + generator + demand-charge tariffs (via URDB). Our free "math backend" for a demand-charge product.
URDB Utility Rate Database: NREL's open database of US utility rate schedules including demand charges. Powers REopt's tariff math. 3,000+ rates.
UtilityAPI: US utility-data aggregator competitor to Bayou. $3/meter/mo Pay-As-You-Go tier. Free when a utility itself deploys UtilityAPI.

Technical (solar / heat pump / building)

Chauffagiste: French heating technician / plumber-heater. The trade that installs heat pumps.
Diagnostiqueur: Certified French DPE inspector. ~15,400 practitioners.
Fluide frigo: Refrigerant fluid (in a heat pump). Installers must file CERFA 15497 for fluid handling and use Trackdéchets for disposal.
Haussmann / Haussmannien: 1850-1914 Paris architecture style. Zinc pitched roofs at ~45°, height 15-25m. Roughly 9% of roof area is practically installable for PV (vs 25% theoretical).
ITB / roof-integrated PV: Integration Bâti — PV panels that replace roof tiles instead of sitting on top. Often required by ABF in heritage zones for aesthetic reasons.
kWc / kWp kilowatt-crête / peak: Rated peak output of a solar array under standard test conditions. Not the same as kWh (energy delivered over time).
kW vs kWh: Power (instantaneous rate) vs energy (rate × time). Demand charges bill on peak kW. Energy charges bill on total kWh.
PAC Pompe à Chaleur: Heat pump (French). Sub-types: air-eau (air-to-water, used for central heating + DHW), air-air (air-to-air, used for HVAC), géothermique (ground-source).
PV Photovoltaic: Solar panels that generate electricity. Distinct from solar thermal (which generates heat).
SCOP Seasonal Coefficient of Performance: Heat pump efficiency measure: kWh of heat delivered per kWh of electricity consumed, averaged over a season. Octopus Cosy fleet reports SCOP ~3.6.
SHAB Surface Habitable: Habitable floor area (French building metric). Used in some CEE fiche calculations (e.g. €41/m² SHAB floor for Coup de Pouce Collectif).
Zinc historique: Zinc-clad Paris roofs, the visual signature of Haussmann buildings. Complicates PV installation because ABF wants the roof appearance preserved.

US grid & interconnection

Cluster study: Under FERC Order 2023: grouping multiple interconnection requests to study together in batches (typically 2 per year) instead of the old "one at a time" queue. Reduces total study burden but requires developers to hit strict cluster deadlines.
COD Commercial Operation Date: The date a generation project starts delivering power to the grid. Median IR-to-COD is now 4+ years for 2018-2024 vintage projects.
DER Distributed Energy Resources: Small, distributed generation/storage/flexibility assets (rooftop solar, home batteries, EVs) — as opposed to central power plants.
FERC Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: US federal electricity/gas regulator. Governs interstate transmission and wholesale markets. Jurisdictional over all ISOs/RTOs except ERCOT.
FERC Order 2023: Issued July 2023. Overhauled US interconnection queue rules from serial "first-come first-served" to batched "cluster studies" with commercial-readiness requirements and study-delay penalties. Order 2023-A (Mar 2024) affirmed the rehearing.
GIA Generator Interconnection Agreement: The contract between a generator project and the transmission provider governing physical grid connection and cost allocation.
IA / IR: Interconnection Agreement / Interconnection Request. The lifecycle stages a generation project moves through in an ISO queue.
IPP Independent Power Producer: Company that develops and owns generation assets outside the traditional utility. NextEra, Invenergy, AES are examples.
ISO / RTO Independent System Operator / Regional Transmission Organization: Regional grid operators. US has 7: PJM (mid-Atlantic), MISO (Midwest), CAISO (California), ERCOT (Texas), SPP (Great Plains), NYISO (New York), ISO-NE (New England).
LBNL Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: US DOE lab. Publishes the annual "Queued Up" report — the authoritative source on interconnection queue capacity, resource mix, and completion rates.
POI Point of Interconnection: The physical substation where a generation project ties into the transmission grid. POI location determines interconnection cost.
SIS System Impact Study: Utility engineering study estimating what grid upgrades a proposed generator will require. Historically slow and expensive; the raw material for our "cost benchmark" data product.
VPP Virtual Power Plant: Software layer aggregating DERs into a dispatchable resource for wholesale markets. €<1B EU addressable market today, projected €13B by 2030. 70+ EU startups — crowded.

US utility rates & demand charges

4CP Four Coincident Peaks: ERCOT (Texas) transmission-cost allocation method: your annual TDU charge is based on your load during the four highest-load 15-min intervals of June-September. Missing one costs $25-40k/MW/yr.
BAS / BMS: Building Automation System / Building Management System. Software controlling HVAC, lighting, etc. ~90% of US small commercial buildings (<50k sqft) have no BAS — a gap for pure-software plays.
BESS Battery Energy Storage System: Physical battery on the customer or grid side. Peak-shaving BESS reduces demand charges by discharging during peaks.
BTM Behind the Meter: Customer-side (as opposed to grid-side). BTM storage/PV/loads are configured by the customer.
C&I Commercial & Industrial: US utility rate class covering non-residential customers. Split further into SMB commercial vs large industrial. Demand charges apply almost exclusively to C&I.
CBECS Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey: US EIA quadrennial survey of commercial building energy use. Source of "5.9M US commercial buildings / 96.4B sqft" figure.
Demand charge: Bill component priced on peak kW (usually the highest 15-min average of a billing month), separate from energy (kWh) charges. 30-70% of C&I bills. The whole opportunity for the SMB SaaS.
DR Demand Response: Wholesale program where large customers get paid to reduce load on grid signal. Voltus and Enel X are the dominant aggregators. NYISO customers can earn up to $450k/MW-year.
EIA Energy Information Administration: US federal energy statistics agency. Publishes electricity rates, generation mix, consumption data monthly and annually.
Peak shaving: Automatically reducing electricity load during moments that would set a monthly peak (thus reducing the demand-charge bill). Can be done via battery dispatch, HVAC pre-cooling, load shifting.
Ratchet clause: Utility tariff term: a demand peak in one month sets a minimum billed demand for subsequent months (typically 11 months at 75-100% of the peak). One bad 15-min spike can lock in high charges for a year.
SMB Small/Medium Business: Sparky's target segment for the demand-charge play. Typically 50-500 kW peak demand — car wash, cold storage, small manufacturing, restaurant, gym.
TOU Time of Use: Tariff structure where energy price varies by hour/season. Usually paired with (not replacing) demand charges.

Business, finance & startup terms

ACV Annual Contract Value: Revenue per customer per year. Used to size a SaaS play — "$1k/mo × 40 customers = $480k ACV × 12 = $50k/mo target."
ARR / MRR Annual / Monthly Recurring Revenue: Subscription revenue rate. Sparky's target of $50k/mo = $600k ARR.
CAC Customer Acquisition Cost: Total marketing/sales cost per new paying customer. US residential solar CAC is $3-7k — one reason those unit economics broke.
GM Gross Margin: Revenue minus COGS (cost of goods sold), as a percentage. SaaS typically 80-90%; consulting hybrid 40-60%.
ICP Ideal Customer Profile: The specific persona/company shape you're targeting. Sparky's V0 red line: "no pre-selected ICP" — let usage data pick.
LTV Lifetime Value: Revenue expected from a customer over their lifetime. LTV/CAC ratio drives SaaS economics; healthy = 3+.
OSS Open Source Software: Code released under permissive/copyleft license. GridStatus's model — free OSS Python lib → paid hosted API — is one of the clearest indie templates in energy.
SaaS Software as a Service: Subscription software, typically web-hosted. 80%+ gross margin is standard.
SEO / SERP: Search Engine Optimization / Search Engine Results Page. "Head terms" are broad high-volume queries (usually owned by incumbents). "Medium-tail" queries are more specific, less contested — where a solo can rank.
SPAC: Special Purpose Acquisition Company. Public listing shortcut. Voltus canceled its $1.3B SPAC merger in 2022 and remains private.
TAM Total Addressable Market: Total revenue opportunity if you captured 100% of the market. Sparky's plays: FR CEE = €4-5B/yr flow; US demand-charge SMB = large but fragmented; interconnection = ~500 mid-market IPPs.
WTP Willingness To Pay: What a buyer will actually pay for something. CS champion WTP for a personal renovation tool ~€150/yr; syndicat WTP ~€300-1,500/yr.
YC Y Combinator: Startup accelerator. Nira Energy went through YC; GridStatus took its seed round from Energize Capital (not YC).

Germany & UK terms

BAFA: Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle — German federal agency historically managing renewable heating subsidies. Envelope now shared with KfW.
BEG Bundesförderung für effiziente Gebäude: Germany's renewable-heating subsidy program. Up to 70% of costs / €21k on €30k eligible works (base 30% + Klimageschwindigkeitsbonus 20% + income bonus 30% + efficiency 5%).
BUS Boiler Upgrade Scheme: UK £5-7.5k grant per heat pump install. Year 3 (Apr 2024-Mar 2025) issued 32,996 vouchers.
Heizungsgesetz: German 2023 heating law. Its uncertainty triggered the German 2024 heat pump collapse (-46% YoY). Regulatory clarity restored → 2025 rebound +55%.
KfW: Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau — German public bank now administering BEG heating subsidies (took over from BAFA).
MCS Microgeneration Certification Scheme: UK equivalent of RGE — required certification for BUS-eligible installations. Passed 250k lifetime heat pump installs Feb 2026. Heatpunk is the leading MCS-compliant free installer tool.
Wärmepumpe: German for heat pump.

Companies & products referenced

1Komma5: German home energy retailer. €520M rev 2024, profitable. >50% of orders now non-solar (heat pumps, batteries, EV). Founder Schröder: "Solar was the place to be, but it's not anymore."
Aurora Solar: US solar installer design/proposal SaaS. Bootstrapped for 5 years on ~$1M, then $536M total raised, $4B unicorn valuation 2021. Aurora is the "what a heat-pump equivalent would look like" reference.
Certrec: Bootstrapped nuclear compliance SaaS. Husband-wife team since 1988. Acquired by Mirion July 2025 for $81M cash (16.9x EBITDA).
Doomberg: Anonymous ex-commodities-team energy/macro Substack. ~$4.8M ARR at 5 people, 100% paid subs, no ads.
Enpal: German residential solar / heat pump company. Raised >€5B debt + ~€600M equity. Revenue fell 2023→2024. Returned to profitability only after €100M diversification into heat pumps + software.
Enverus: Massive oil-and-gas data juggernaut expanding into renewables. Acquired Pearl Street Technologies March 2025 — the interconnection tooling stack now lives inside Enverus PRISM.
Flett Exchange: Solo-founder SREC exchange. Bootstrapped since 2007, $1M revenue, 2-10 employees. $2.50 flat commission per SREC transaction.
GridStatus.io: US grid-data platform. Bootstrapped to $1.7M ARR via OSS Python lib before $8M seed from Energize Capital. Cleanest indie template in the space.
Heatpunk: UK free MCS-compliant heat pump design tool by Midsummer distributor. Would be the FR PAC-installer-SaaS template if MCS were the analog to CEE/MPR.
Kapacity.io: YC-batch building-energy startup. Acquired by EnergyHub Nov 2024.
Nectar Climate: YC S23 company. 99.2% parsing accuracy across 7,000+ US utilities. Aimed at ESG/CSRD reporting, not audit — leaves an audit-ruleset gap open.
Nira Energy: Interconnection queue analysis SaaS. YC + strategic capital. $3.6M ARR, 24 employees. Reference customers: Invenergy (36 GW), AES, Cypress Creek.
Otovo: Nordic solar marketplace. Q4 2025 pivoted from new-installation (Newbuild) to services (Otovo Care). Merged with Onvis Inc. Now US-focused. Signal that residential solar marketplace didn't work at their scale.
Papernest: See French orgs.
Pearl Street Technologies: Interconnection tooling company. Acquired by Enverus March 2025; now inside Enverus PRISM.
Purrmetrix: UK bootstrapped HVAC-monitoring SaaS. $680K ARR, 6 employees, no funding. Shows the ceiling for pure indie building-energy SaaS.
Solo (getsolo.io): US solar proposal SaaS. Founded 2018 in Lehi UT by David Wilson (ex-Vivint Solar). $42M revenue 2024, 302 staff, $0 raised, $126M valuation. The standout bootstrap in solar-adjacent SaaS.
SolarReviews (Andrew Sendy): Consumer SEO → installer lead marketplace. Bootstrapped, $1-5M revenue, Inc 5000 5 years running, 150% growth. Highest-margin no-sales-team indie template in the research.
SRECTrade: SREC take-rate exchange. Raised only $500K-$930K, acquired by Xpansiv Nov 2021 for a mid-8-figure valuation. 13-year hold to indie exit.
Uplight: Utility-facing SaaS. ~$72.7M ARR pre-acquisition, $1.5B valuation. Acquired by Octopus Energy Group March 2026.
Volts: David Roberts' solo Substack + podcast covering decarbonization tech + politics. 93k+ subs. Estimated $500k-$1M+ ARR at zero infrastructure.
Voltus: US demand-response aggregator. $240M in customer payouts in 2025, 8.1 GW flexible capacity, 12,000 customers. Rev-share on DR payments, not SaaS subscription.
Zolar: German residential solar. Raised $241M VC. Cut headcount ~400 → <50 in 6 months. Pivoted from consumer install to selling software to local installers. CEO: "would never have become profitable."