Case Study
How Chaberton Energy grew pipeline 10x
Chaberton Energy
Background:
Chaberton Energy was founded in 2020 with a mission to deploy distributed energy projects that empower communities. Chaberton has developed over 100 MW of community solar and other distributed energy projects, and has over 1 GW in development pipeline.
Unique approach:
Chaberton's values of creativity, excellence, and humanity drive their development philosophy. The company focuses on the distribution grid, collaborating with project partners and local utilities to deliver reliable, affordable energy to the communities they serve.
The challenge
As a small but growing distributed energy developer, Chaberton faced the challenge of scaling efficiently while maintaining quality. Like many lean development teams, they needed to expand their pipeline across an increasing number of markets without proportionally increasing headcount—a challenge that their existing tools simply couldn't solve.
The team faced several critical obstacles:
- Tools designed for the wrong scale: Most available software is built for utility-scale projects, not for the community solar and distributed energy work central to Chaberton's business model. Previous tools were ineffective for their needs; they needed access to additional grid details to amplify their team's efforts.
- Data scattered across platforms: Critical information on interconnection, permitting, and landowners was fragmented across different websites and tools. This made the process inefficient and increased the risk of missed red flags.
- Constrained lead generation: Previous platforms limited the team to pulling 5,000 parcels at a time, creating a bottleneck for a company that needed to generate significant volume to feed their specialized origination process.
The solution
Paces platform and team provide Chaberton with the tools and insights they need to overcome these challenges:
- Built to scale with Chaberton's growth: Unlike older tools that were poorly suited to distributed generation work, Paces is purpose-built to support projects of all sizes and types. Tools such as parcel search and data organization are scalable and adaptable to Chaberton’s workflow.
- Centralized, reliable data: Paces consolidates up-to-date interconnection details, providing access to data and landowner information on a single platform. The team no longer needs to jump between multiple tools to vet potential sites.
- Significantly expanded parcel limits: Chaberton can now pull 50,000 parcels in a single search, 10x their previous limit, dramatically increasing lead generation capacity without adding team members.
"We were able to get 10x the number of parcels [with Paces]...Our lead gen right off the bat was much more efficient, more accurate, and allowed us to scale more readily."
— Albert Yeh, Senior Manager of Commercial Operations
The impact of Paces on Chaberton's workflow and success is clear:
10x lead generation and improved win rates
Chaberton tracks success through the number of opportunities that eventually become signed leases. With Paces, they've increased lead generation by 10x while maintaining or improving conversion rates, something that was difficult under their previous constraints.
Total addressable market clarity
Before Paces, concepts like "total addressable market" and "high value" sites were things Chaberton considered but often couldn't quantify until after obtaining site control. Now they can quickly pull those numbers and classify prospects more effectively, focusing resources on high-value opportunities earlier in the lead generation cycle.
Flexibility for evolving needs
Whether adjusting after new markets open up or responding to new policy environments such as the recently enacted Renewable Energy Certainty Act in Maryland and the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act in Illinois, Chaberton found a solution flexible enough to adapt to their changing needs. The platform enabled them to quickly reassess their entire portfolio and adjust strategy without sacrificing efficiency or output.
"We would not be closing as many projects as we are now. And I truly don't believe that our quality of projects would be as high as they would be without Paces."
— Albert Yeh, Senior Manager of Commercial Operations
A deeper look:
Chaberton's story with Paces
Chaberton Energy came together with a clear philosophy: they would put creativity, excellence, and humanity at the center of everything they built. This mission became the foundation for the company's approach to developing distributed energy projects. Co-Founder and President Mike Doniger recalls that these values actually came first, before the formal mission statement, reflecting a commitment to think differently about development work.
That philosophy extended to how they thought about tools and workflows. Mike met Paces Co-Founder and CEO, James McWalter, at a conference in February 2023. At the time, Paces was, as Mike remembers it, at a "startup booth in the far back corner" of the exhibitor floor. But what started as a conversation at that booth evolved into a partnership that has shaped how Chaberton operates today.
Albert Yeh, Senior Manager of Commercial Operations, recalls the initial challenge of finding a tool that would work at their scale. Chaberton was working on community solar projects, and most tools were built only for utility-scale solar projects. They were also wasting time switching between tools and having limitations on data and parcel searches. When Paces was adopted, Albert and his team finally had a tool that worked for their project size and could scale with them, with no limitations on parcel search and the data they needed. However, any team leader knows that it can be challenging to switch to a new tool, which is why Albert was caught off guard: "What really surprised me is the origination team being so excited about a new tool." That enthusiasm came from seeing immediate, tangible improvements in their daily work. The platform made their jobs easier in ways previous solutions hadn't.
The technical improvements were significant. Server-side search processing eliminated failed queries before they reached the midway point. The ability to pull 50,000 parcels instead of 5,000 removed a major bottleneck in lead generation. Consolidated data meant the team could see interconnection, permitting, and landowner information in one place rather than hunting across multiple platforms. But Albert emphasizes that it wasn't just the features for the Chaberton team; it was the partnership. "One of the big factors that drove us to Paces was really the leadership, the people," he explains. The Paces team listened to feedback, provided real timelines rather than vague promises, and delivered on roadmap commitments.
This became especially valuable in 2025, a year of industry ups and downs driven by policy shifts and market changes. When Maryland passed new renewable energy regulations, Chaberton needed to quickly reassess its portfolio. With Paces, they could do that analysis in days rather than weeks or months.
The platform has also proven flexible enough to serve different parts of Chaberton's business. While the Origination team uses it primarily for lead generation and site vetting, the Community Impact team leverages it to identify neighbors within specific distances of project sites. This critical community engagement task previously required manual measurement with tools. Paces is able to grow alongside Chaberton, “We are able to grow our pipeline with a sustainable tool versus [having to] double our team to be able to grow that way,” shares Albert.
Looking ahead, Mike sees Chaberton continuing to evolve alongside broader industry shifts toward storage and other distributed energy resources. The company is well-positioned for this future precisely because it has built its operations on foundations, including Paces, that can adapt to changing markets. As Albert shared, Paces’ reliable data and partnership in highly nuanced markets allow Chaberton to grow and innovate.
