Software foundation launches with first grant for solar asset mapping

The Banyan Software Foundation has been launched by Atlanta-based Banyan Software with an inaugural $1 million grant to TransitionZero for its solar asset mapper project.

The Banyan Software Foundation is aimed to focus on supporting organisations that leverage technology to build a greener and more equitable world, according to a statement.

Endowed with a $100 million commitment of stock over the next four years, the Foundation is expected to become one of Banyan Software’s largest shareholders with a growing impact.

“We wanted to take a bold step and make this a defining part of our identity, including at the ownership level,” said David Berkal, CEO of Banyan Software, an enterprise business software growth organisation.

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“We’ve always focused on creating an enduring positive impact in our businesses and people but saw the opportunity to scale that impact even further. We believe this represents one of the largest instances in history of a technology company contributing stock to a foundation, amplifying our ability to create positive change in the world.”

The Foundation has kicked off with two $1 million grants to London-based TransitionZero, developer of open source energy system modelling software, and the US non-profit workforce developer Merit America.

Solar asset mapper

TransitionZero’s solar asset mapper (TZ-SAM) is an open access, asset-level global dataset of commercial and utility scale solar facilities mapped utilising satellite imagery and machine learning.

The dataset currently contains the location and shape of 63,096 assets across 182 countries, covering close to 19,000km² with a total estimated capacity of 705GW.

The $1 million grant from the Banyan Software Foundation is intended to help accelerate the development of new features and improved methodology for mapper.

This includes additional solar asset type metadata, increased accuracy of estimated solar capacities, and continued research into expanding detections to residential solar applications – a primary feature request.

Matthew Gray, CEO and co-founder of TransitionZero, describes the solar asset mapper as a “vital tool” for grid operators and analysts to help them navigate and manage the rapid rise of solar energy as it takes centre stage in the global energy landscape.

“Banyan is helping us improve access to critical data for effective energy systems planning, empowering countries to pursue sustainable energy solutions independently.”

The dataset, which was launched in May and counts over 500 users to date, is updated quarterly, with the TZ-SAM Q3 dataset due to go live in October 2024.