Articles & News

We’re excited to have been selected for a new, fast-tracked Hospitality Tech Accelerator to drive proven sustainability and carbon solutions throughout the hotel industry.

Sponsored by Maryland’s Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation, the accelerator includes locally-based Marriott International and Choice Hotels, along with numerous other major hospitality brands.  And with guidance from a great accelerator team, including senior staff from Accenture’s hospitality practice.  More here.

PACE AI has closed an SBA International Trade Loan facility to accelerate our expanding work with our international OEM and distribution partners.  The ITL program is a great, cost-effective path for tech company expansion, and with ESG and carbon goals slipping with each month for large companies around the world, it’s a great time for our carbon and cost-cutting solutions.

We’re extremely pleased to have won an award from the California Energy Commission’s CalTestBed program, to work with the world-class FLEXLAB team at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  We’ll be demonstrating new smart grid features of our next-generation edge AI/ML technology, launching this year.  More to come!

We’ve been proud to have our solutions qualified for electric and gas utility On-Bill Funding and On-Bill Repayment programs (OBF/OBR). These programs are a terrific way to get energy cost savings with $0 upfront costs.

Here’s how they work, see this U.S. Department of Energy description.  In short: OBF/OBR programs pay 100% of the cost of the energy saving project (lighting, building envelope fixes, etc.).  And then, spread out project payments over 3-5 years, as just a single new line item on your monthly utility bill.  They’re structured so that (monthly savings) are > (monthly payment) — so cash flow positive from Day 1, and your savings start immediately!

Electric and gas utilities across the U.S. are expanding OBF/OBR programs, in response to customer demand.  And PACE AI is a qualified solution for all these programs, given our IPMVP-compliant, 24/7/365 savings verification technology and fast payback, even before incentives.  We can now offer OBF/OBR in California, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Texas, and with Constellation Energy customers, anywhere in the U.S.  Contact us for details!

A great project by one of our Energy Service Company (ESCO) partners, for its large real estate client, shows the power of PACE AI to deliver “cut and track” cost and carbon reductions, fast.   And with utility incentives making it easy to say yes.

Phase 1 of the project will retrofit 134 large HVAC units on 12 buildings, in an office/residential planned development in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  Installation is by local HVAC contractors: PACE’s cell-based edge+cloud solutions can be installed quickly by your regular HVAC firm, with touchscreen-based instructions and savings that start immediately upon cloud connection.

The project will reduce electric cooling consumption by over 2.5 million kWh per year, and lower peak demand from the site by over 1,300 kW.  Utility rebates give the project an excellent ROI.  And after installation, PACE AI’s patented Demand Response options will give the client additional revenue choices, while at the same time helping the Texas grid.

Our homes are a big part of the electric grid, and skyrocketing electric and gas costs are a new misery for many homeowners — in the U.S., and in recent weeks even more so internationally.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that residential was the biggest electricity use sector in 2021, at 39% (nearly 1.5 trillion kWh) — even higher than the commercial sector, at 35%.  From PACE AI’s strong base in commercial/industrial cooling and heating cost and carbon cutting, we’re excited with a new initiative with a major residential-focused equipment partner, to bring PACE AI to Smart Home.  Results in field trials are good, so stay tuned!

PACE is happy to report that we’ve reached agreement on new development funding with Hitachi, as we build together new solutions to cut energy use and carbon in buildings and industry.

In both, as the old wisdom goes, “you can’t control what you can’t see”.  And an article this week from Bloomberg News lays out the problem succinctly, in reporting on the failure of the U.K.’s building energy ratings system to predict actual energy use.  The authors also point out the related problems with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program, which is focused more on sustainability measures.

From the article: “There’s often very little connection between modeled and actual energy use. Even in brand new buildings we struggle to make predictions.” — Professor David Coley, University of Bath

Read the article here.

Continuing our global expansion in Industrial IoT, we’re pleased to be working with Sodexo and its U.S.-based partners in projects for industrial and manufacturing clients in both E.U. and Asia.  With the enormous process heating and cooling demands of the world’s industrial plants, and the parallel impact on companies’ carbon footprints and operating costs, PACE AI brings an easy-to-add, highly scalable way to both cut and track, for both carbon and costs.

PACE AI recently delivered 27% HVAC cooling savings for a Hitachi manufacturing plant in the Midwest U.S. The 27% AI/ML reductions, in both cooling kWh and electric cost and in greenhouse gas impact, were achieved complementary with and additive to the plant’s existing building automation system, and with the same or better HVAC comfort and performance — both, typical of PACE AI.

Even better, utility rebates bring the full project ROI (as simple payback) to 2 years (IRR of 40%+), and with a 3 year savings warranty backed by a global insurance company.  And PACE AI edge+cloud monitoring also allows for easy tracking of carbon impacts, in future programs.

The project is part of a multi-phased application of PACE AI for the division, to include plant-floor manufacturing as well as other IIoT applications.

PACE is pleased to have entered into a Master Service Agreement with Sparkfund, a leading climate-focused U.S. energy and smart building company.  The Sparkfund Platform™ provides As-A-Service energy efficiency, smart grid, water conservation, and other solutions to Sparkfund’s customers, with 2,000 projects completed to date in 43 states. Learn more here.