HST Solar
6 known investors
HST Solar operates a marketplace and software platform called View that connects landowners, energy buyers, and clean energy developers to originate site control agreements and offtake deals faster. It offers integrated project analysis tools for assessing commercial viability, scenario modeling, and contract structuring for solar and clean energy projects.
Also known as HST · Hst Solar · HST Technologies
Investors · 6
Also in the syndicate · 5
Company profile
researched Aug 2026HST (legal name HST Technologies; also referenced as HST Solar) provides View, a software platform and multi-sided marketplace for utility-scale clean energy project development. The platform has three main components: Develop Marketplace, which connects developers with pre-vetted, qualified landowner listings to sign site control agreements faster; Develop Analyze, which performs integrated commercial-viability and site analyses and scenario modeling for changes in interest rates, interconnection availability and equipment prices; and Originate, which curates matches between optimized projects and investment-grade energy buyers and centralizes team data from early-stage development through to a power purchase agreement.
The company's earlier product was an end-to-end platform for the design and engineering of large-scale solar projects. Proprietary algorithms searched large parameter spaces of possible system configurations - including row-by-row spacing, tilt and orientation, structural and electrical elements - to optimize for lowest levelized cost of electricity or maximum project IRR. Users entered site location, local wind, snow and seismic conditions, equipment selections and financial assumptions such as cost of capital, taxes and PPA escalators, and the software returned an optimized design within minutes rather than the months typically required for manual engineering work. The company also designed racking hardware to be optimized within the same system and offered code-compliant engineering packages.
Customer and partner names cited on the company's site and profile include Avangrid, Silicon Ranch, Engie, EDP Renewables, BayWa, Bechtel, Pathway Power, Accelergen, Lightsource BP, Hanwha Q Cells USA, FRV and E.ON Climate & Renewables, plus ecosystem partners Green Strategies, Redaptive, Tenaska, DNV, Skyview Ventures and Acrux Development.
Founding story
HST Solar was founded in 2012 by Santanov Chaudhuri and Rudy Roy with the aim of producing optimal solar system designs through computational search, so that solar projects could be viable without subsidies. Co-founder Chaudhuri, educated at Harvard Business School, described the industry's prevailing manual design workflow - sequential engineering, racking and electrical work taking months before project economics could be known - as both inefficient and a source of project risk, and positioned automated design as the remedy.
Business model
B2B software sold to clean energy developers, independent power producers and energy buyers, with revenue streams described as subscription and e-commerce/product. The company offers a free trial and self-serve sign-up to its Analyze product and lists land and buyer listings on its marketplace. In its earlier engineering-software phase, the company said it did not charge for the design and feasibility software itself, making it free to use, and monetized downstream steps, including supplying optimized racking hardware and end-to-end engineering packages with in-house wet-stamping and sealing.
Subscription software plus e-commerce/product revenue streams; reported revenue is in the $1-10 million range. Historically, the design and feasibility software was offered free, with monetization occurring at later project stages, including optimized racking hardware and engineering packages.
Traction
The platform has been used to design over 3 GW of large-scale projects across five continents. In 2015 the company had designed six projects and reported cost savings of roughly 20-30%, and in some cases up to about 40%, of overall system costs. Developer executives at Lightsource BP, EDP Renewables NA, Silicon Ranch, Hanwha Q Cells USA, FRV, Avangrid Renewables and E.ON Climate & Renewables describe using View to increase early-stage project evaluation volume and accelerate site analysis; one former EDP Renewables manager cites project return gains of as much as 60 basis points from early development-stage search.
Latest developments
The company's current positioning centers on the View marketplace linking landowners, developers and energy buyers, with a partnership and investment relationship with DNV and embedded services from DNV and Norton Rose Fulbright. A funding round dated January 2022 is listed with investors including DNV Ventures, Addition, Elemental Excelerator and Storm Ventures.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
HST describes View as one of the world's largest utility-scale clean energy development operating systems, used by developers and power producers including Avangrid, Silicon Ranch, Engie, EDP, BayWa, Pathway Power, Accelergen and Bechtel. In its earlier phase it described itself as a leading end-to-end software platform for large-scale solar design and engineering, with a pipeline said in 2015 to include three of the top ten solar developers. Listed competitors include Tesla, Recurrent Energy and Enpal.
The platform combines automated, algorithmic project design and analysis with a marketplace layer that matches developers to qualified landowners and investment-grade offtakers, rather than addressing engineering or origination separately. Analyses are stated to run about five times faster than conventional processes, and third-party risk and legal services from DNV and Norton Rose Fulbright are embedded directly in the product. In the earlier design software, row-level optimization of tilt and configuration - rather than a uniform layout - was presented as a source of cost and yield advantages.
Technology
Proprietary optimization algorithms scan billions of possible design iterations to engineer large-scale solar projects for the lowest cost of electricity and maximum project IRR. Inputs include site location, wind, snow and seismic data, equipment selections, financing structure and standard financial assumptions; the system optimizes layout parameters such as spacing and per-row tilt and orientation, accounting for trade-offs between solar capture, wind loading and structural cost. Designs adhere to applicable building code and the National Electric Code, with in-house wet-stamping and sealing for end-to-end engineering packages. The current View platform adds integrated scenario analysis and marketplace matching, with third-party services from DNV and Norton Rose Fulbright available in-product.
Go-to-market
The company sells directly to utility-scale developers, independent power producers and corporate energy buyers, supported by a sales organization including a VP of Sales, an enterprise solutions director and sales managers. Acquisition is supported by a free trial and rapid self-serve sign-up for the Analyze product, land listing sign-ups for landowners, and downloadable platform, marketplace and case-study collateral. Partnerships with DNV, Norton Rose Fulbright and a broader ecosystem network extend the platform's capabilities and reach, and customer testimonials from developer executives are used as references.
Utility-scale clean energy developers and independent power producers, large enterprise energy buyers, landowners listing sites, and large energy-intensive companies and cities pursuing rapid decarbonization.
Geography
Headquarters are listed in Los Angeles, California, United States. The target geography for the marketplace business is North America; early projects were in California and Massachusetts, while the design platform was reported to have been used across five continents.
History
The company was founded in 2012 under the legal name HST Technologies, initially positioned as an end-to-end software platform for the design and engineering of large-scale solar projects. By 2015 it had designed six projects (five in California, one in Massachusetts) and employed about 12 people, having raised angel funding from private investors at Stanford and family offices followed by an early Series A. In 2016 it won the Singularity University Global Grand Challenge Award in Energy. Its platform was subsequently reported to have been used to design more than 3 GW of large-scale projects across five continents. The company later broadened into a multi-sided marketplace and operating system for clean energy project development under the View brand, with a January 2022 round listed and investors including DNV Ventures, Addition, Elemental Excelerator and Storm Ventures.
Compiled by commissioned research from 6 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 3
launches, deals, and filingsDNV representatives describe an investment and partnership between DNV and HST covering the View platform; DNV and Norton Rose Fulbright technologies and services are offered directly within View.
A funding round labeled 'OTHER' dated 1 January 2022 is listed for the company; investors named include DNV Ventures, Addition, Elemental Excelerator and Storm Ventures.
HST Solar was named the 2016 winner of the Singularity University Global Grand Challenge Award in Energy for its technology.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 6
primary sources listed
- HST Solarhstsolar.com · web
6 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does HST Solar do?
- HST provides View, a marketplace and analysis platform connecting clean energy developers with landowners and energy buyers.
- Who are HST Solar's investors?
- HST Solar's investors include Kae Capital.