Telstra Ventures backing software start-up OpenSolar’s European expansion

Telstra Ventures is setting its sights on the rooftop solar market, backing a software company that forecasts the world to generate 100pc solar energy by the early 2040s.

OpenSolar is forecasting more than $US3 trillion to be created in the transition to solar electrification between now and 2030.

Telstra’s venture capital arm is setting its sights on the rooftop solar market, leading a $US15m ($22.4m) capital raising for a renewable energy software firm, to accelerate its green expansion.

Armed with a $500m war-chest, Telstra Ventures has been investing in tech start-ups aimed at tackling climate change and greenwashing. The first company that has caught its attention is OpenSolar, which has been providing its software platform free-of-charge to solar panel installers in more than 130 countries.

The platform allows contractors to design a solar panel installation and provide customers with accurate performance data – including estimated savings from switching to renewable energy.

It has 75 hardware, finance and service providers connected to its platform and makes its money from charging those companies rather than solar panel installers.

Telstra Ventures partner Albert Bielinko said OpenSolar’s software could be a key plank in “electrifying the world” with renewable energy.

OpenSolar estimates that by the early 2040s, the world could transition to 100 per cent solar-generated energy, based on growth rates of 25 per cent a year. The company currently supports $US2.5bn in sales per year.

“We’ve been extremely impressed by OpenSolar, which we believe is the world’s leading solar design and sales platform,” Mr Bielinko said. “The software significantly accelerates how installers can electrify the world. We are firm believers in this unique business model that’s free to the installer and also highly valuable to hardware and service providers

OpenSolar chief executive Andrew Birch said the company launched in Australia five years ago. He said the local solar energy market was the “most advanced” in the world and the company is setting its sights on Europe.

Mr Birch said the amount of sunlight in a northern hemisphere winter was only “one factor” and the spiralling cost of grid electricity in those markets was pushing more people to build their own renewable energy.

“In Europe, especially now with the energy crisis, we’re seeing huge rises in the cost of energy for customers. And so we can now as an industry have much lower- cost energy with clean, effective solar power on your roof,” he said. “Solar is now the lowest-cost energy in the world. It’s the ­lowest-cost energy humanity’s ever had. It’s ‘how do you scale this low cost-effective, low-carbon solution?’.

Mr Birch said the $US15m raising would ensure the company’s platform “acts as the backbone for contractors’ businesses, saving them many thousands of dollars every year and freeing them up to deliver more solar electrification to homes and businesses more efficiently”.

Other investors in the raising include sustainability fund 2150 and existing investors including Jeff Tannenbaum’s Titan Grove and solar entrepreneurs Alec Guettel and Howard Wenger.