The One-Person, Billion-Dollar Power Development Company

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has invoked a rarely used provision of the DOE Act to request that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) take jurisdiction over transmission-level large load interconnections (greater than 20 MW). This proposal, currently in the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking stage, aims to standardize processes and set national guardrails for how utilities manage these requests. If adopted, utilities could be required to complete studies for curtailable loads within 60 days, creating faster, more predictable timelines for data center and industrial developers. However, states and utilities are likely to challenge the rule, raising questions about jurisdictional authority and cost allocation that could delay implementation until 2026 or later.

This recap highlights the biggest takeaways from RE+ 2025, the clean energy industry’s largest event. From shifting policy and strained interconnection queues to capital recycling, storage momentum, and real estate diligence, it captures the conversations shaping how projects get built — and what developers, investors, and partners need to prepare for next.

This playbook is a strategic guide for renewable energy developers navigating the fast-moving landscape created by the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA). It breaks down the critical 30-month window for securing federal tax credits, shoring up supply chains, and accelerating construction timelines before incentives phase out.

Outdated, disjointed workflows are slowing renewable energy deployment just as grid demand surges from AI, data centers, and electrification. Building on the foundation of Paces’ Accelerated Development Framework (ADF), unified workflows eliminate silos, reduce rework, and help teams surface risks earlier. By centralizing expertise, automation, and decision-making in one environment, developers can move faster to site control, reduce costs, and deliver clean energy at the pace the grid now demands.

At CERAWeek, I saw firsthand how securing American energy supremacy has become imperative. With solar now delivering 66% of new grid capacity, renewables are clearly vital to our energy future. In order to best position renewables as the answer for growing load demand, the industry must embrace ADF. The industry consensus: we must accelerate deployment to power America's AI leadership.

By 2030, data center power demand will surge by 160%, but outdated development workflows slow renewable deployment. Paces’ Accelerated Development Framework (ADF) eliminates bottlenecks with AI-driven site vetting, pre-vetted locations, and integrated workflows, cutting timelines and costs while accelerating clean energy deployment to meet rising demand efficiently.

Discover how Paces is accelerating clean energy development in 2025 with expanded data coverage, innovative product updates, and the launch of Fractional Development Services. Reflecting on 2024 milestones, we’re charting the path forward for renewable energy deployment and empowering developers to reach NTP faster.

How does clean energy shape the future of artificial intelligence? This blog, written by our Solutions Engineer, Tony Wagler, explores insights from a talk by Eric Schmidt, former CEO and Chairman of Google, and Craig Mundie, former Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft, on the critical role of energy in fueling AI advancements, the global competition for AI dominance, and the ethical challenges of innovation. Discover how Paces is driving renewable energy development to advance the AI build-out.

In this post, we share Paces’ perspective on anticipated challenges and opportunities in renewables, manufacturing, and energy independence under the new administration.

Introducing Paces' newest feature, the Environmental Report, which automates site screening for renewable energy projects. With 80% of renewable energy projects failing to reach NTP, Environmental Report is designed to empower developers by consolidating critical environmental, zoning, and permitting data into a single, comprehensive report within minutes—helping teams make faster, more informed decisions and avoid costly delays.

New York (NY) and Pennsylvania (PA) handle zoning and permitting for community solar projects at the township level, requiring navigation of diverse local regulations. Despite similar administrative structures, NY has a mature solar market with double the installed capacity of PA, which is just starting its first community solar program. We decided to build and analyze a database of township-level zoning ordinances and solar laws to see if this same discrepancy shows up in permitting data.

Only 5 properties (295 acres) in all of Glenn County, CA are feasible for ground-mount solar when considering interconnection, environmental constraints, and permitting restrictions. Why?

Placing state distributed solar goals within the context of local ordinances and zoning codes

Learn how Paces is using LLMs to structure vast amounts of solar zoning legislation.

Solar brownfields, long overlooked, are beginning to shine as opportunities for renewable energy development!

Why sheep farming can have a profoundly positive impact on building solar projects!

Investigating how the spatial configuration of the transmission network has changed with the rise of renewables.

Renewable development is failing to reach its potential. With a <20% success rate for renewable projects with an interconnection queue position, we must confront the blockers to development head-on to have any hope of increasing the rate of successful development.

Our CTO and cofounder Charles Bai was selected to be on the Forbes 30 Under 30

The Inflation Reduction Act is massive for the clean energy industry and at Paces we have been excitedly working through its implications.

Our CEO James McWalter was delighted to speak to Founder to Founder about why collecting & aggregating infrastructure data is important.

Paces had a booth at TC Climate and met some amazing people in a jam-packed 12 hours.

Today we are delighted to announce that this summer we joined the current S22 batch in Y Combinator.

Delighted to be featured in Forbes!

This is a slightly different episode, where I chatted with Charles Bai, CTO and co-founder of my startup Paces!

We’re excited to announce that we’ve raised $1.9m in Pre-Seed funding.