Powering the Future: Charlotte City Council Invests in Solar Energy Storage Solutions with Joules Accelerator and Yotta Energy

“We are excited to see this collaboration between our Cohort 7 startup, Yotta Energy, and our long-standing partner, the City of Charlotte.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (July 11, 2023) – On Monday night, the Charlotte City Council voted to adopt a budget ordinance that appropriates $20,000 from Joules Accelerator, a local nonprofit that supports climate tech startups, to the General Capital Projects Fund.

Joules Accelerator is providing funds to the city to aid in the purchase of solar energy storage equipment, which will be installed underneath the solar panels at CMPD Central Division at 700 W. Fifth St. in Council District 2. Being placed underneath the panels will save space and require no electricity to thermally regulate the equipment.

This equipment will store excess renewable energy from the solar panels and then release it in the evening, increasing the amount of off-grid renewable energy the building will use. These efforts support the goal set forth in the Strategic Energy Action Plan of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“At Joules Accelerator, we work with early-stage climate tech startups to find revenue-generating pilots,” said Executive Director Bob Irvin. “We are excited to see this collaboration between our Cohort 7 startup, Yotta Energy, and our long-standing partner, the City of Charlotte. We hope this donation marks the beginning of continued partnership opportunities between the city and Joules to provide sustainable energy solutions throughout the Carolinas.”

The equipment will be purchased from Yotta Energy, a renewable energy company that is part of Joules’ portfolio and provides scalable, affordable, and decentralized energy storage by coupling the storage directly to solar panels.

The total estimated purchase cost is $59,200 with $20,000 coming from the Joules Accelerator grant and $39,200 from the city’s local match. The local match is available within current appropriations.

To learn more about the city’s Strategic Energy Action Plan, visit its dedicated webpage.

About Yotta Energy

Yotta Energy is delivering a green future with ‘Energy Made Simple’ solutions that incorporate solar, energy storage and electric vehicle charging technologies into commercial buildings. Yotta has developed a unique PV-Coupled™ architecture, a smart energy storage solution designed to scale with rooftop solar PV projects effortlessly, in addition to a number of electric vehicle charging products to create a holistic ecosystem of renewable energy technologies. Yotta's technology features advanced thermal management to maintain an optimal working temperature even under extreme outdoor conditions. As an integrated software plus hardware solution, Yotta also helps address grid outages by enhancing grid resilience and reliability. Yotta’s technology allows for a much lower total installation cost for rooftop solar-plus-storage and EV charging infrastructure than that available by any other current providers today. Learn more at www.yottaenergy.com.

About The city of charlotte & (SEAP) strategic Energy action plan

In June 2018, the Sustainable and Resilient Charlotte by 2050 Resolution was unanimously passed by Charlotte City Council. This resolution set aggressive and aspirational municipal and community-wide greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals for the City of Charlotte. Specifically, it strives to have city fleet and facilities be fueled by 100% zero-carbon sources by 2030. It also sets a community-wide goal for Charlotte to become a low carbon city by 2050 by reducing greenhouse gas emissions to below 2 tons of CO2 equivalent per person annually. Lastly, it called for a strategic energy action plan to determine how Charlotte would reach the two goals.

In December of 2018, city council unanimously adopted the Strategic Energy Action Plan (SEAP.) Sustainability staff developed the SEAP in partnership with community stakeholders and city departments participating in greenhouse gas emission reduction scenario sessions and continuous engagement on the specific areas of the SEAP. This resulted in a comprehensive framework of 11 linked action areas containing internal and external actions, focused on transportation, buildings, energy generation, and workforce development/equity with steps on how to reach the goals set by the resolution. For more detail go to www.charlottenc.gov.

About Joules accelerator

Since 2013, Joules Accelerator has attracted talented startups from around the world to Charlotte and Raleigh to promote innovative climate and energy solutions. Joules Accelerator works to identify, advise, and deploy early-stage climate startups while connecting them with the energy network of the Southeast and beyond. Joules moves quickly to make warm connections to relevant network stakeholders across the region and to find revenue-generating pilots and other commercialization opportunities for member startups. For more info go to www.Joulesaccelerator.com