Insider Brief:
- Renewable energy developers face many obstacles when attempting to realize new projects, from land disputes to issues with regulations.
- Startup REplace has devised an SaaS solution to improve the odds of renewable energy projects being able to break ground.
- REplace co-founder details how his company has been able to attract investment.
Renewable energy is having a moment. Investment in renewable energy has skyrocketed, despite geopolitical troubles, as more governments and industries look to wind, solar, and other renewables to meet climbing energy demands.
Investment in renewable energy is set to increase this year to a record US$2.2 trillion, the International Energy Agency wrote in its World Energy Investment 2025 report, released this month.
The organization tracked investment in clean technologies, including renewables, nuclear, grids, storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency, and electrification, in its report. The IEA also found that investment in oil, natural gas, and coal will reach US$1.1 trillion in 2025.
Energy security appears to be the driving factor in this uptick in investment, the IEA said.
Spending on lower-emission energy has nearly doubled since 2020, with solar PV leading in investment. Spending on solar technologies for both industrial and residential use is expected to attain US$450 billion this year.
Renewables are set to overtake coal-fired electricity generation in 2025, the IEA said. Growth in renewable energy was one of the drivers for clean power accounting for more than 40% of global electricity in 2024, energy consultancy Ember said.
Renewable projects still encountering obstacles
Despite this solid growth in investment, getting renewables projects up and running is still fraught with challenges.
Securing community buy-in and advancing renewable projects through to production is fraught with delays. Some 86% of developers of renewable energy projects experienced delays of more than three months due to permits or regulations, environmental services firm Transect found in an August 2024 report.
The renewables industry is also beset with workforce shortages, diminishing the number of people who can resolve these permitting and land selection difficulties.
New tool aims to overcome project delays
These are the precisely the problems that Matias Segal wants to address with his startup, REplace. Sigal is co-founder and CEO.
REplace harnesses AI capabilities to help renewable energy developers choose the right sites for their projects, and avoid the hassles that can result in problematic delays and cancellations.
Segal saw these issues firsthand when working as a renewable energy developer in his home country of Argentina.
“I was developing renewable energy projects for around four years,” he said. Though the projects were good, they often failed after months of work, he said.
“I talked to 300 renewable energy developers from all over the world, and found that this [failure to launch projects] was standard in the market. My research found that some 80% of renewable energy project failed before they were built.”
Reasons for project failure included problematic regulations and difficulties with local landowners, he said.
REplace, headquartered in Tel Aviv, has created a tool that will help renewable energy developers identify locations that are the most amenable to development.
“REplace is setting a new standard for how renewable energy and data center projects are developed and planned,” Sigal said.
AI is a game-changer for the indusry, co-founder Alan Algamis said.
“By applying advanced AI to real estate and site selection, permitting, and project mergers and acquisitions, we’re compressing timelines from months into seconds – unlocking faster development, lower costs, and smarter decisions,” Algamis said.
The tool can also be used by investors to determine which renewable energy projects have the highest likelihood of being built, Sigal said.
The platform analyzes more than 50 project characteristics – including grid data, permitting risks, local markets, and landowner statistics – to provide in-depth analysis on specific land areas open for development. Early clients have included EDF Renewables, Iberdrole (in partnership with Kyoto), and Doral Energy.
Fundraising challenges in climate tech
REplace has just closed a US$1.6 million raise, and has raised a total of US$2.2 million from investors. New investors include Gravity Climate and Adam/a, a new climate tech fund backed by Crescendo Partners. Techstars and Malbec Ventures also contributed to the raise.
Sigal said his firm is lucky that it wasn’t looking for funding back in 2021, when climate funding was in the doldrums.
His advice for climate startups looking for funding: Develop your three main components – customers, product, and investors – in parallel.
“We have a dream team of investors now, who are the experts in the field – including the founder of Enlight, a US$2 billion renewable energy developer,” Sigal said. “We started a relationship with them a long time ago.”
He also highlighted the importance of following through on commitments.
“We did everything we said we were going to do,” he said. “If you prove your product fulfil a need, you can sell it to corporates.”
