Clean Energy Hubs

Gemini's Black Church Clean Energy Hub Program addresses three primary obstacles that people in residential housing face: Affordability, Information, and Access.

Affordability: Electrifying one's home or implementing energy efficiency measures can cost thousands of dollars -- and government assistance is often difficult to navigate for BIPOC and low-income residents who already suffer from higher energy burdens, according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. Additionally, there’s a dearth of funds to serve everyone who needs it, and many who do require financial help are not eligible in the first place.

Churches and other faith-based organizations have much greater access to a diverse array of funding to supplement upfront costs of both energy audits and the ensuing clean energy upgrades. Plus, as explained in answers below, pillars of the community can equitably disperse resources to community members to assist them in their own clean energy transformations.

Information: Whether it's LIHEAP or WAP, ~20% of eligible customers are connected to energy efficiency assistance programs and utility bill relief. Aside from that, the topic is not common knowledge and those who can least afford to spend the time researching solutions, need it the most. Transforming faith-based institutions into clean energy hubs means that everyone in the community can not only see the benefits, but learn about how they can transform their own homes. So while this may not be directly upgrading homes, it's a critical stepping stone.

Access: Before a home owner or renter is ready and able to undergo a clean energy transformation, they can come to their church (or other faith-based center) for fossil-fuel-free power, clean air, and anything else they need. If seeing is believing, touching is convincing.

That's why the church and other faith-based places are most suitable to kickstarting the clean energy transformation, especially in BIPOC and low-income areas.

We already go to church (or any place of worship) for safe shelter, food, and other forms of restoration. At Gemini, we envision these anchors of the community as a place to not only showcase what clean energy can do for people, but to swiftly and equitably distribute the benefits to an entire community.

Gemini's primary tool for change -- aside from creating and bringing an equitable ecosystem to life -- is our affordable, investment-grade energy audit. An energy audit is the critical first step that any building must take before implementing changes that will reduce its energy bill and eliminate harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

Our audits include a report with both a detailed assessment of energy use and a financial analysis. Aside from the reduced cost of our audit, which is at least 20% cheaper than the market-rate, we train and hire locals in the community to carry out the steps necessary; from data collection to the installation of upgrades. In essence, Gemini's energy audits double as a workforce development catalyst. Finally, with respect to financial solutions, industry standard is to rely on debt-based solutions but Gemini offers low-to-0% financing through minority-owned capital solutions. Additionally, we aim to provide Inclusive Utility Financing options that are far less predatory than programs such as C-PACE/PACE.

Places of worship, for example, are the perfect vessels for a community to realize every possible benefit of the clean energy transition and bring the power of clean energy to life!

Black Church Clean Energy Hub benefits can be dispersed to the entire community thanks to the position faith-based organizations already have within their community. The Black Church boasts more than 40-million members across America, so this program can quickly expand thanks to our partners such as Green the Church and Interfaith Power & Light.

Benefits include:

• Generate Revenue. Sell power back to the grid through solar panels and sell electricity to electric vehicle drivers via bi-directional EV charging. This money could go into a fund that assists community members afford their own energy efficiency upgrades.

• Enhance Resiliency from Grid Failure. Combining solar power with EV batteries transform buildings into microgrids. When the power goes down, for whatever reason, churches can recharge community members. If community members lose power at home, they can visit church to power their phones and other devices and even charge their own EVs. More importantly, during weather disasters, community members can seek refuge and shelter at a safe temperature.

• Community Education. Showcase the benefits of the clean energy transformation; a tangible example for all to touch, see, and learn from. Plus, for anyone interested in working in the clean energy field, Gemini loves to hire based on our partner recommendations; churches become incubators for economic opportunity.

• Reduce Emissions for Everyone. Create a fossil fuel-free environment inside your building for everyone to enjoy. Eliminate harmful GHG emissions from your community.

• Showcase Minority-Led Businesses. Black excellence in the clean energy space is on full display: All our partners are Black-owned businesses and organizations who bring the power of clean energy to life. Gemini hires locals to become data collectors and more importantly, we partner with local, BIPOC contractors to install energy efficiency and electrification upgrades.

As a Black-owned business, our CEO & founder, Anthony Kinslow II, is deeply rooted in the Black Church community. We have secured a well-established relationship with national organizations and companies that are based in faith, BIPOC and low-income communities, and most importantly are instilling change in communities via clean energy solutions.

Beyond that, our team is very diverse with 4 different races/ethnicities and multiple religions -- as this program can expand to other faiths such as Judaism.

Our whole approach is rooted in the idea that change requires trust. So we work with community leaders, be them faith-based institutions or other nonprofits and community-based organizations, to help in multiple facets:

• Identify potential Data Collectors to train and carry out the energy audits.
• In turn, these Data Collectors, already rooted in their community, are more easily able to bring the idea to other commercial buildings (other potential clean energy hubs) and exponentially spread the clean energy transformation.
• Identify potential candidates to become contractors/installers, paving a more secure path and long-term path to economic prosperity.
• Make inroads with other Clean Energy Hub candidates, instilling greater trust.
• Identify what's most important to their community -- perhaps instead of EV charging, it makes more sense to invest in Wi-Fi or focus more on regular charging and heating/cooling resources.

First and foremost, we'd love it if Solve can help with raising capital and bringing in investors to provide monetary support.

A couple other aspects of the company could use some refining and assistance:

• Technology - we have a great foundation for our platform -- the primary tool that drastically reduces the cost and time it takes for investment-grade energy audits to take place, allowing us to scale much quicker than traditional ESCOs. However, any assistance with making it a more efficient piece of software would be of great help!
• Reaching new clients (referenced below) - our product and this program in particular, clean energy hubs at faith-based anchors of the community, are geared towards a criminally underserved part of the building community: small commercial buildings represent 88% of the stock in America, with more than 5 million spread across the country. Our product saves people time, money, and eliminates harmful GHG emissions -- cheaper and quicker than the current market/industry standard. We just need to reach more customers/clients because it's the type of thing that exponentially grows.

Conducting an energy audit is the first step to upgrading a building, whether it be for energy efficiency, renewable energy, electrification, or battery storage.

Energy efficiency is the quickest and cheapest way to lower energy bills and
eliminate harmful GHG emissions.

And yet, most ESCOs only focus on either residential buildings or large commercial buildings. The small commercial building sector -- which includes most churches and places of worship -- represents 88% of the commercial building stock in this country, with more than 5-million potential Gemini customers. We serve a slice of the market ignored by the industry.

Additionally, we are far more scalable than anyone else out there. Professional energy auditors require degrees and years of training, which result in expensive energy audits. Instead, Data Collectors can be trained in a matter of weeks to visit buildings and collect the data that our platform (described more below) needs to produce an official report.

Five years from now, the buildings and communities we help transform will continue generating extra revenue from their new Clean Energy Hub campus, that much closer to paying off any loans associated with the energy efficiency and electrification upgrades.

Most importantly, we're ensuring that the places we live, learn, work, shop, play, and pray are:

• Clean & Green
• Smart & Efficient
• Safe, Healthy, & Comfortable
• Energy Resilient

A Gemini-Led Future for Social, Cultural, & Economic Liberation Entails:

- Own and control where, when, and how we live our lives.

- Black dollars circulating in the Black economy.

- Healthier, wealthier, and more resilient Black communities.

Every building that we audit -- our primary unit of measurement -- and upgrade means a:

• Cleaner Environment: Less fossil fuels powering our buildings and causing irreversible health effects on our communities.
• More Regenerative Economy: Short and long-term economic opportunities for a new workforce; one that looks like the communities we prioritize. The economic benefits of the clean energy transition remain in underserved communities, reversing historical, extractive practices.
• Additional Revenue to Continue the Clean Energy Transformation: Saving money and generating revenue sources for small commercial buildings which can be circulated back to the community -- especially via our primary target for Clean Energy Hubs: Churches and faith-based organizations.

Affordable, investment-grade energy audits allows Gemini Energy Solutions to:

Eliminate harmful GHG emissions through energy efficiency and clean energy upgrades.
&

Transform exploitative industry practices into a regenerative economy that prioritizes underserved communities. Therefore, we are democratizing the process so that it's more equitable.

The Problems: Barries to Accelerating the Clean-Energy TransformationThe Solutions: Democratize the Energy Audit SectorQuantity of Auditors: There are not enough energy auditors who can conduct energy audits in order to meet ambitious clean energy goals.

Cost: Upfront cost deters 90% of the commercial building stock from pursuing energy audits and the subsequent upgrades.

Results May Vary: Inconsistent calculations produce varied results and result in missed opportunities for upgrades.

Reach: Energy audits are geographically limited to urban areas. Rural areas lack qualified auditors.

Homogeneity: The energy audit sector lacks diversity and struggles to reach underserved communities.

Training Time: Extensive training and a high level of technical expertise is required. Data Collectors: Gemini developed a technology & training program that enables anybody to produce an investment-grade energy audit.

Affordable Energy Audits: Gemini's platform drastically reduces the cost & time to conduct an ASHRAE Level 2 and IREE Certified energy audit, compared to the rest of the industry.

Consistent Results: The Gemini Platform automates the identification, calculation, and reporting of potential savings & upgrades.

No Area Left Behind: We can train Data Collectors in every town, city, and state across the U.S.

Diversity in Action: We hire local Data Collectors who are familiar with their community's needs.

Rapid On-Boarding: Our training program takes weeks, not years, to develop Data Collectors.

Conserve Platform - Gemini has created a platform that streamlines energy audits of small commercial buildings, allowing them to be conducted quickly and cost-effectively. Energy audits completed using the Gemini platform take approximately 5 hours, without the need for expensive engineers or professional energy auditors.

Conserve produces an investment-grade energy audit -- meaning that results can be used to secure financing for upgrades -- in one day. This is at least 5 times faster than the industry standard of one week.

Gemini is helping to make sure BIPOC, low-income, and rural communities don’t get left behind by increasing their access to clean energy solutions and opportunities and the economic, resiliency, and health benefits that come with them. The makeup of our team, who we hire in the field, and who we work with reflects these values. Gemini prioritizes working with Black and other historically marginalized communities, turning an extractive industry into a regenerative one.

Democratize the energy audit sector by removing the reliance on energy engineers and professional energy auditors to conduct an energy audit for small commercial buildings. Instead, we train local talent to collect on-site data and input that data into Conserve, our proprietary software. Conserve, which we developed over three years, automates the entire production of an investment grade energy audit—from calculations to report creation—using the data entered by our data collectors. The energy audit process only takes seven days; much shorter than the competition. Gemini audits exceed requirements for ASHRAE Level II energy audits. This model delivers investment-grade energy audits that are 70-90% cheaper than the current market options with the potential to reach 20X more buildings per year.

Gemini’s has a dual business model of B2B and SaaS. Our B2B clients are building owners, building tenants, utilities, and cities. We partner with local contractors and national green financing entities to ensure our recommended upgrades are implemented. For this service, we receive additional payment from both the client and contractor. Under the SaaS model, we lease access to Conserve to any entity trying to implement cleantech into commercial buildings. This includes but is not limited to non-profits, cleantech companies, utilities, and municipalities.

Gemini’s competitive advantage is our expert leadership and diverse team beginning with the founder and CEO, Anthony Kinslow II, PhD.  Dr. Kinslow II, who holds a PhD from Stanford University and is a Certified Energy Manager is one of the few African-Americans in the country with this level of technical expertise. His background and high level of technical expertise enables him to identify existing gaps in implementation and develop scalable solutions to address those gaps. Across the leadership team, five languages can be spoken fluently and we represent five different ethnicities.

The buildings sector accounts for approximately 76% of electricity use and 40% of all US primary energy use and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To reverse global warming, the US must dramatically increase implementation of energy efficiency measures, remove the use of natural gas (electrification), increase renewable energy installations, and add grid flexibility in the building sector. Thirty-two states have climate action plans to reduce their GHG emissions. These goals, backed by policy mandates, equate to trillions of dollars in private and public funding that will be spent over the next decade. An energy audit is the recommended—and often mandated—first step to implementing any of the aforementioned changes.

An energy audit diagnoses the building energy dynamics and identifies measures that will reduce the energy demand. It benchmarks the performance of existing systems and equipment and identifies cost-effective energy efficiency upgrades and/or building electrification measures. It is also best practice to conduct an energy audit prior to installing site-specific, renewable energy to confirm the necessary sizing of the system.

An energy audit consists of data collection, analysis, and report writing. Typically, only  an energy engineer or a professional energy auditor can conduct an energy audit. Conducting an energy audit is critical to these endeavors because a professional energy audit is a technical trade requiring 3-5 years of experience. Energy auditors can demand an hourly rate between $100-$150. As a result, the vast majority of the small commercial sector find receiving an energy audit cost-prohibitive or an unnecessary luxury.

Over the next three years, as the US  transforms into a clean energy economy; demand for commercial energy audits will increase exponentially. There are more than five (5) million small commercial buildings in this country alone presenting a rich opportunity to rapidly deliver environmentally necessary and affordable energy audits. Existing energy service companies (ESCOs) are simply unable to meet this imminent demand because they lack the technology and workforce to deploy energy audits at the scale the moment calls for. Gemini has positioned itself to be the one viable scalable option.

There are five primary streams of revenue, listed below along with the revenue generated in 2021 and (expected revenue) in 2022:

1. Energy Audits without Financing - $1,500 ($7,500)
2. Energy Audits with Financing - $8,000 from 4 clients ($60,000 -  City-wide project, Tucson 2030)
3. Clean Energy Hubs - $30,000 ($75,000 - 3 clients)
4. SaaS - $0 ($10,000/year)
5. Program Operator - $0 ($205,000 REC)

Gemini has received loans that can reach into seven figures, if needed, to continue operations as the revenue streams continue to mature. Additionally, we are planning projects in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, California, Arizona, Georgia, and Florida to bring in additional revenue, spread across the five different streams.