Draft:BlocPower

BlocPower is a Brooklyn-based cleantech company. The company uses software to identify energy inefficiencies in buildings, with the aim of retrofitting those buildings with energy-efficient technologies that will reduce carbon emissions and lower the energy costs for the building owners. It has a proprietary SaaS platform called BlocMaps and also provides financing, analysis, project management, and training during the retrofitting process. BlocPower has been praised for its innovative approach to tackling climate change and helping marginalized communities, but has also been critiqued for a variety of shortcomings, including accusations of dishonesty.

History
BlocPower was launched in 2013 by Donnel Baird. From late 2013 to 2014, the company received funding from the Building Technologies Office, in US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. This supported a pilot program to develop an online platform for connecting investors with energy efficiency project investment opportunities.

BlocPower partnered with Ithaca, New York, to help implement the Ithaca Green New Deal resolution, a resolution adopted by the city in 2019 with the aim of making the city carbon neutral by 2030. Under the agreement, the company would work to convert at least 1,600 of the 6,000 buildings in Ithaca to electricity, especially those owned by low income and disadvantaged residents. Unlike most city contracts, the BlocPower agreement was not subject to the traditional competitive procurement process. Progress on Ithaca's Green New Deal has stalled at various stages due to factors such as the pandemic, delays in ramping up BlocPower's involvement, and the turnover of city officials and environmental advocacy groups.

In 2021, BlocPower contracted with the city of New York to create a workforce training program to train 1,500 people in communities fighting gun violence. The contract was financed from the Cares Act.

In 2022, the company's Civilian Climate Corps workforce training program expanded to train 3,000 New York City residents for clean energy jobs. Menlo Park partnered with BlocPower to transition residents from natural gas to electric power, as part of a $4.5 million grant from the state of California for purposes of electrifying the city by 2030.

In March 2023, the company had exposure to the 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, but ultimately was protected by the FDIC. Later in the spring of 2023, the city of Cambridge, MA, partnered with BlocPower for a one-year pilot program to help the city reach its 2050 carbon net zero goals. A pilot was also launched May 9th with Petersborough, NH.

In early 2024, the first eleven commercial properties to undergo electrification in Ithaca were announced. As of February 2024, the company has contracts with numerous cities across the country.