Noveletta
Project Idea Metadata
- Project Idea Name: Noveletta
- Date: 8/14/2023 1:22:44 PM
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Administrators:
Project Idea Description
Long Description:
Noveletta provides easy-to-use and easy-to-expand digital representations of every plot of land in Switzerland, all in one place and accessible with one single ID. Rather than building functional silos (one data set only for mortgage, architectural purposes, etc.), we have merged everything around “concrete entities” (e.g. a specific land parcel or a building) and allow the data to be used and be enriched around different functional services such as land development, energetic renovation, or property mortgage and sale. We call this expandable data set “PROPERTY CARD”.
The key focus of Noveletta's development is to support providers (both in the energy market, in the architectural and real estate development market, and policy makers) in identifying and analysing rooftop solar potential in combination with residential densification.
Project idea description
- What problem would you like to solve?
At Noveletta, we want to identify and quantify the potential for old buildings retrofitting and solar installations for the entire residential Swiss buildings stock:
- to help reduce the amount of energy consumed and waste generated from demolition and new construction (repurposing and upgrading existing structures rather than tearing them down and building new ones);
- to analyse and maximise rooftop solar potential;
- to identify potential areas for residential densification.
Additionally, we want to build ROI estimates considering building geometric analysis, property demand estimation (taking into account the household size, age, energy systems, etc.), location and climate data, feed in tariffs and electricity price, all in one comprehensive ML model.
We plan to have a rich catalogue of the entire Swiss buildings stock (given the available data) to quantify the potential for (1) retrofitting of old buildings, (2) solar installations and (3) densification in different context (urban, semi-rural and rural), accessible to a diverse set of stakeholders (listed below).
- Who are the customers and how will they profit from a solution?
- energy experts: energetic renovation assessment;
- solar system providers: solar potential analysis and project estimations;
- cities and planning agencies: policy analysis and simulations;
- private homeowners: property dashboard (the entry point to the digital public space);
- architects and construction companies: early stage design and site studies;
- real estate developers, banks and mortgage lenders: land potential estimation;
- investors and buyers: multi-criteria land parcel screening and due diligence;
- asset managers: portfolio analysis;
- every one: to communicate in a digital marketplace backed by property cards.
- How does your project idea affect energy savings or CO2 emissions?
According to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, "The Swiss buildings stock consumes approximately 90 TWh, i.e. 40% of the total end energy demand in Switzerland. Buildings also account for about one third of Switzerland’s CO2 emissions. Energy Strategy 2050 aims to reduce the energy consumption of the Swiss buildings park to 65 TWh by 2050. Buildings also account for a substantial amount of materials consumed, waste products, and the environmental harm caused by our society." [Source].
At Noveletta, we want to support the goal of reducing the energy consumption and the carbon footprint of the Swiss buildings stock, by building a comprehensive digital real estate data hub aimed at diverse stakeholders.
Starting from solar rooftop potential and densification potential, including energy renovations, we want to analyse the entire Swiss buildings stock to better target market opportunities and to support policy makers from federal, to cantonal down to Gemeinde level, with unprecedented granularity (a 3D model of each building, enhanced by a rich dataset and comprehensive modelling capabilities).
Current status and previous activities
- What has been tried before?
- We have been developing the Property Card and have made it available via an API. Via this API, people can quickly check detailed information about each property including the solar potential of the buildings, densification potential of the building. While we are currently focused on monetizing the Property Card as an analytical solution for different business customers, we have had some further tests and market research for the idea of a tech-enabled marketplace for solar energy and densification potential.
- Regarding densification potential: using this data set we have approached a limited number of property owners with properties with really high densification potential. We have done this via a team of real estate developers and by sending personalised letters to the property owners.
- Regarding solar potential: We have conducted a series of systematic interviews with private property owners who had already installed solar systems for their properties. We asked them about their pain points and how satisfied they were with the process of finding an energy/solar company and the installation process and costing transparency. We ask them if they would be interested in a tech enabled marketplace for solar energy where they can compare and identify the best offers.
- We have presented our data set and discussed our business ideas to a solar provider company based in Geneva and discussed the idea of proactive marketing, where rather than waiting for the property owners we identify the properties with high solar potential and the solar companies can proactively approach the owners. Their current pain point is that they can not easily calculate the profitability of a property as their internal processes are based on case by case and manual data collections.
- What was not successful?
- Regarding densification potential: it seems that the market still works based on very classic models and sometimes the real estate developers or brokers prefer to work based on asymmetric information and less transparency. Due these circumstances it seems that the additional analytics and data does not help as long as one does not change the business processes.
- Regarding the solar marketplace idea: we have mixed observations. These property owners were among the early adopters and they were more or less fine with spending time to explore the technologies or do some simple economic assessment on their own. However, a few of the owners stated that they would be very interested if there was more support in the process of calculating the potentials and costs and finding the best solar companies.
- What have you learned?
- In the case of densification we need to introduce new processes. For example, rather than directly approaching the property owners based on traditional approaches such as unsolicited letters or phone calls, we want to build digital platforms based on real data and analytics where interested parties can freely participate and identify real estate developers, architects or buyers.
- The idea of solar marketplace requires further investigations considering the fact that there are around 1000 solar companies only in Switzerland and the majority of the remaining market includes the property owners who might require further standardisation and easier project management. For example, developing an automated matching and scoring system to connect the solar companies to property owners seems beneficial for both sides of the marketplace.
Resources needed
- What are your planned work packages?
- WP1: solar rooftop potential vs installed PV capacity analysis for targeted marketing campaigns, subsidies, maximising rooftop power production, over the entire Swiss buildings stock (to expand and add granularities to studies like this)
- WP2: assessment of densification potential in different contexts (urban, semi-urban, rural), in areas where policy makers have the need for a comprehensive analysis of the buildings stock.
- How can the Energy Lab help you?
Exposure to potential commercial partners, connection to policy makers at Gemeinde and cantonal levels, and expert support for further developing our business model.