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Launch HN: Jasmine (YC S22) – Automating REC compliance and payouts for solar

42 points by mmayberry 1y ago

Hi HN — we’re Nathalie, Dalton, Vince, and Matt, and we’re launching Jasmine Energy (https://www.jasmine.energy https://www.jasmine.energy), a tool that helps residential and commercial solar owners automatically register their systems, track energy generation, and get paid for Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). RECs are tradeable certificates for clean electricity, issued by energy markets across the US. Most people with rooftop or small commercial solar have never heard of them, let alone claimed them, but they’re real! They are typically bought by utilities or companies to meet climate targets. The problem is, the process to claim and sell RECs is a mess—designed decades ago for utility-scale players, not individuals or small businesses. To register a system and start claiming RECs, you usually have to: Navigate one of 10+ regional REC registries, each with its own documentation, forms, and rules; Pull generation data from your inverter or utility, format it, and submit it manually; Try to find a buyer (often through a broker or opaque exchange) and negotiate payment. That takes weeks if not months for a single system, and most people give up. As a result, millions of solar installations leave income on the table every year. We started Jasmine Energy after seeing this firsthand: some of us worked in energy startups, and others watched our parents install solar but never claim a single REC. Jasmine automates all of this. Our platform: Extracts metadata from your solar documents using AI and auto-registers your system in the correct registry; Connects to your inverter to submit generation data and verify REC eligibility; Lists RECs for sale through partners, tracks the sale process, and issues payouts—all through a single dashboard. This domain is a good fit for automation and LLMs—not to generate text, but to (1) structure unstructured documents, (2) interact with legacy government websites where there’s no API, and (3) deal with repetitive bureaucratic language. To be clear, we’re not trying to “squeeze public funding” or take unfair advantage of the system. REC sales happen in voluntary and compliance markets (usually funded by corporate buyers and utilities, not taxpayers). Jasmine doesn’t create or inflate incentives—it just helps people claim what already exists but is hard to access. We’re making the REC market more efficient. RECs have been one of the most effective and widely adopted incentive systems to drive grid decarbonization. We’re excited to be making them easier to access. The product is live now for solar owners in PJM, M-RETS, and ERCOT territories (more coming soon). If you already have solar, you can upload your docs and start the process at https://assets.jasmine.energy https://assets.jasmine.energy. We’d love feedback from this community—on the product, the market, or any edge cases you think we should worry about. And of course we’ll be happy to answer any questions!

solardev 1y ago
I hope this doesn't sound rude, but I'm trying to understand the model here. Does this mean that instead of incentivizing new utility-scale buildouts, you've now created a credits marketplace where no new solar is added but existing small rooftop installations are suddenly eligible, flooding the market with an artificially increased supply? So companies can buy RECs that don't actually increase the installed solar base, claim that it offsets their pollution, but in reality it's just some accounting trickery that's newly counting solar that's already built? That's what it sounds like at first glance, but maybe I'm misunderstanding? Maybe in the long run, if the automation itself drives further adoption and increases solar uptake, it's a net positive..?
- adamsch 1y ago
  Indeed, RECs are known to have very little additionality and there is a ton of research questioning their role in decarbonization. "A number of studies have zeroed in on the influence of voluntary RECs—those purchased by private customers—on renewable energy production and have gathered significant evidence to suggest that these certificates have had little to no impact. One of these studies, led by researchers at Princeton, Harvard, and UCLA, for example, found that if the power market for voluntary RECs did not exist, “the amount of electricity generated by wind power in the United States would be little different than what we actually see today.” A paper published in 2022 in Nature which received significant attention from the media argued that due to the drop in the prices of RECs in recent years, the revenue associated with these certificates is insufficient to promote an increase in green energy production. The paper concludes that while the group of companies being analyzed reported a combined 30.7% reduction in emissions resulting from their REC purchases, the actual reduction was closer to 9.9%." https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/commentary/blog/renewable-energy-credits-decarbonizing-the-grid-or-just-a-corporate-messaging-tool/ https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/commentary/blog/renewable-e... https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01379-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01379-5
  - fauigerzigerk 1y ago
    This criticism seems circular to me. If the certificates are too difficult to claim, then of course they don't have the desired effect of acting as an incentive.

42 points by mmayberry 1y ago

solardev 1y ago

I hope this doesn't sound rude, but I'm trying to understand the model here. Does this mean that instead of incentivizing new utility-scale buildouts, you've now created a credits marketplace where no new solar is added but existing small rooftop installations are suddenly eligible, flooding the market with an artificially increased supply? So companies can buy RECs that don't actually increase the installed solar base, claim that it offsets their pollution, but in reality it's just some accounting trickery that's newly counting solar that's already built? That's what it sounds like at first glance, but maybe I'm misunderstanding? Maybe in the long run, if the automation itself drives further adoption and increases solar uptake, it's a net positive..?

adamsch 1y ago
Indeed, RECs are known to have very little additionality and there is a ton of research questioning their role in decarbonization. "A number of studies have zeroed in on the influence of voluntary RECs—those purchased by private customers—on renewable energy production and have gathered significant evidence to suggest that these certificates have had little to no impact. One of these studies, led by researchers at Princeton, Harvard, and UCLA, for example, found that if the power market for voluntary RECs did not exist, “the amount of electricity generated by wind power in the United States would be little different than what we actually see today.” A paper published in 2022 in Nature which received significant attention from the media argued that due to the drop in the prices of RECs in recent years, the revenue associated with these certificates is insufficient to promote an increase in green energy production. The paper concludes that while the group of companies being analyzed reported a combined 30.7% reduction in emissions resulting from their REC purchases, the actual reduction was closer to 9.9%." https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/commentary/blog/renewable-energy-credits-decarbonizing-the-grid-or-just-a-corporate-messaging-tool/ https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/commentary/blog/renewable-e... https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01379-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01379-5
- fauigerzigerk 1y ago
  This criticism seems circular to me. If the certificates are too difficult to claim, then of course they don't have the desired effect of acting as an incentive.