Green Success Stories puts Matias Sigal, CEO and Co-Founder of REplace, in The Green Spotlight. Integrating social impact with successful ventures is the theme of Matias’ work experience. From Buenos Aires to Tel Aviv and from there to multiple countries around the world, he has been proving that technology can play a big role in combatting climate change. As CEO of REplace he continues to do so, leading the way by identifying the most promising sites for renewable energy projects, in a way that eliminates months of manual work, minimizes development risks, and maximizes ROI.

Tell us a bit about your sustainability journey.

I’m Matias Sigal, originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. My sustainability journey started in high school, when I launched my first business with a friend, designing a product to help shave without making a mess in the bathroom. We partnered with a factory and successfully brought it to market, even supplying products to Philips. This experience introduced me to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, where I first encountered the concept of impact-driven businesses.

Motivated to integrate impact into my ventures, I partnered with a cooperative textile factory run by former convicts. The factory provides them with a sustainable livelihood while maintaining high product quality. Spending time at the factory gave me a deeper understanding of social impact.

Soon after, I wanted to make an even bigger difference. As I researched climate change, I quickly realized it was the defining challenge of our time, one that technology could help solve. To immerse myself in the field, I decided to go to Israel for two months and intern at a renewable energy startup. Within that short time, they hired me full-time and sent me to six countries in a year to help expand the business. That experience deepened my understanding of sustainability, technology, and the global energy landscape.

What was supposed to be a two-month experience turned into six years (and counting). I moved to Tel Aviv to continue working with the company while also exploring ideas for a startup that could drive environmental impact at scale. Over two years, I evaluated 52 potential ventures, analyzing market opportunities, monetization models, and competition. None seemed like the right fit until I recognized a recurring problem in my own work. Many of the projects I helped develop failed due to poor site selection.

After speaking with 300 industry peers, I discovered that developers were spending months, manually analyzing land, often leading to costly failures and delays. In fact, 80% of renewable energy projects fail due to inefficient site selection, slowing down the clean energy transition at a time when we need to accelerate it. That insight led me to start REplace, leveraging technology to solve this critical problem and speed up the deployment of renewable energy worldwide.

Tell us a bit about the product or solution you offer.

REplace is a platform for the development of renewable energy projects. Our proprietary technology evaluates over 50 data parameters, including grid capacity, permitting constraints, and financial viability, for every single potential land parcel in the selected region. Using advanced multicriteria decision-making algorithms, REplace instantly identifies the most promising sites, eliminating months of manual work, minimizing development risks, and maximizing ROI.

Within months of launch, we began working with global energy leaders like Iberdrola, EDF, Doral, Elawan, and Bithenergy, helping them streamline their site selection process and scale their renewable energy portfolios.

Share a green success story with us – how have you helped customers or other businesses in the fight against climate change?

At REplace, we’ve had the privilege of supporting major renewable energy project developers like EDF and Iberdrola in the fight against climate change. Through our advanced land assessment technology, we’ve helped these companies streamline their project development process by identifying the most relevant land parcels for solar energy projects in just a few clicks.

By integrating multi-criteria decision-making, our platform ranks land based on over 50 parameters, allowing developers to focus their efforts on the most promising sites.

This work plays a crucial role in accelerating the transition to renewable energy, as developers can scale their solar projects faster, contributing to a cleaner and more sustainable energy grid.

What would you do with $1 billion dollars?

I believe climate change is the greatest challenge of our time and that technology can help tackle it. With $1 billion, I would take REplace’s mission to the next level, expanding our platform globally and adapting it for every type of sustainable infrastructure project, from solar and wind to hydrogen and energy storage. Beyond site selection, we would develop additional solutions to further accelerate the energy transition, ensuring clean energy projects are built faster, more efficiently, and at an unprecedented scale, establishing REplace as the global platform for renewable energy development.

What do you envision your industry looking like in ten years?

The renewable energy industry is set for a decade of exponential growth and transformation. According to the International Energy Agency, renewables are expected to generate over 50% of global electricity by 2035, with solar leading the charge. The market will continue expanding rapidly, with a 9.47% CAGR from 2024 to 2032.

A major driver of this growth will be the increased demand for sustainable energy from sectors like data centers. As the digital economy grows, it will require vast amounts of renewable energy to meet their needs. To accommodate this demand on top of the already estimated renewable energy demand, millions of acres of new solar projects will need to be developed, making renewables a critical component of future energy infrastructure.

Beyond capacity growth, the industry will see major shifts in how projects are developed. AI-powered development will eliminate bottlenecks, automating land identification and permitting processes. Meanwhile, grid modernization will improve renewable integration through better transmission planning, interconnections, and large-scale energy storage.

We’ll also see a shift toward decentralized energy, where community solar and distributed generation become more common. AI-driven automation will optimize every stage of development, ensuring projects maximize impact, efficiency, and profitability.

In this evolving landscape, companies that streamline project development and reduce risks, like REplace, will be at the forefront of the transition. The next decade isn’t just about growth, it’s about fundamentally reshaping how clean energy is deployed worldwide.

What would you like readers to take away from this article?

Millions of acres need to be developed for solar and other renewable projects, yet current methods for identifying suitable locations take months, and around 80% of projects never make it to the build stage. This inefficiency and high risk are major obstacles to meeting growing energy demands. As demand for renewable energy continues to surge, the need for faster, more reliable solutions is more urgent than ever.

This is where REplace comes in. REplace has developed a cutting-edge technology that identifies the optimal locations for renewable energy projects in just a few clicks, significantly reducing both risk and time. Industry leaders like Iberdrola, EDF, Elawan, Doral, and BithEnergy are already leveraging REplace’s platform to streamline their development processes, positioning it as the go-to solution for scalable, efficient, and low-risk project development.

How should readers get in touch with you and/or your organization?

Website: http://www.renewableenergy.place

Email: [email protected]

REplace LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/replace-renewable-energy

Matias Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matiassigal/

Kudos

Many thanks to Motias Sigal and REplace. Green Success Stories is happy to support and highlight your efforts! We invite you the reader to do the same.

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