RatedPower: Merging tech and engineering to bring a new name to renewable energy

Women have other strengths, which can give another type of leadership. My partners and I are aware of the diversity of gender and race. The more different the experiences, the more value each profile brings and the easier it is to innovate

Andrea Barber, 2022 WE Empower Finalist, Europe and North America

Prior to founding RatedPower, Andrea Barber worked in a multinational engineering services firm. This field of work had an alignment with a male-dominated industry which provided barriers to women progressing to management positions. This motivated Barber to actively pursue closing the gender gap through various outlets to encourage women to follow entrepreneurial paths while they can watch more female role models grow.

The creation of RatedPower blossomed with this value in mind having a staff that is 50% female as well as the progression of the SDG’s, and a goal to fight climate change. RatedPowers’ purpose is to “accelerate the energy transition” by growing the use of solar energy with their pvDesign via the culmination of engineering and technology. This process assists in mitigating the negative impact on the environment via contributing to UN SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, UN SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, and UN SDG 13: Climate Action

Affordable and Clean Energy

Nowadays, focus is being drawn to a pivotal shift in the types of energy we use due to the rapid effects of climate change severely affecting our surrounding environment and livelihood. RatedPower took this initiative to promote access to clean energy by honing in on an unlimitedly available renewable resource; solar energy. This accessibility is manufactured through the software pvDesign which allows a 5% reduction in users Levelized Cost of Energy, and overall results in increased profitability. This creates an incentive for a switch away from nonrenewables as well as giving greater access to a clean energy source at an affordable price. 

Sustainable Cities and Communities 

In the interests of preserving the natural world and helping communities grow in an efficient and safe manner, pvDesign has contributed to 20,000 project developments all over the world. In doing so, clean energy has been provided to 22 million homes in 150+ countries redefining access to electricity in developing and developed areas. 

Climate Action

pvDesign and its impacts are greatly influencing the amount of PV solar projects that are in action and how many new ones are being implemented in companies and organizations all over the world. This increase shows the acclimation towards the renewable energy transition. The completion of the thousands of projects pvDesign has contributed towards an estimation of a 29 million ton reduction of CO2 with an annual decrease in almost 33 million barrels of oil. 

RatedPower tracks solar and renewable energy trends that may be useful for your business to leverage. They also have ebooks and reports with forecasts and knowledge. If you are interested in photovoltaics, watching a demo, or accessing reports, check out their website.

We currently have over 80 active customers for pvDesign, with an average of 12 users per company. This means more than 700 users every day benefit from using the software to optimize their solar energy plants and the work of their engineering teams, shortening times, allowing them to focus on more value-added tasks, and the most important: making their solar plants more efficient.

The WE Empower UN SDG Challenge is a first-of-its-kind global competition for women entrepreneurs who are pushing the UN Sustainable Development Goals and leading innovation in sustainability and climate change through their businesses. This Contributing Series highlights finalists of the Challenge whose work demonstrates how business models and social entrepreneurship can drive global impact.

by Samantha Studstill