For this Company Spotlight, we interviewed Empact Technologies’ Founder and Chief Executive Officer (Charles Dauber). Empact Technologies maximizes the impact of clean energy project tax incentives with its proprietary IRA management platform, enabling projects to meet IRS regulatory requirements for prevailing wage and apprenticeship, domestic content, and energy and low-income community incentives. Developers use Empact to secure project construction financing, ensure regulatory compliance, and protect investors from IRS recapture audit risk. For more information on Empact Technologies, please visit www.empacttechnologies.com.

Background: After 25 years of experience in the technology and energy/industrial sectors, Charles Dauber founded Warm Commerce in 2018. The company was initially focused on providing a software platform that helped operators in the energy and industrial sectors to better source and manage their vendors/service providers. When the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) went into effect in 2022, Warm Commerce’s customers in the energy transition sector asked for features to help track and store tax credit compliance data, such as prevailing wage & apprenticeship requirements, domestic content, and low-income community impact. Given that Warm Commerce was already a link between operators and vendors, it was not a huge effort to add those features, especially as there were no other solutions available in the marketplace. As the IRA tax compliance offering became the fastest-growing portion of the business, the company completely focused its efforts on the compliance solution and rebranded as Empact Technologies in August 2023.

Value Proposition: Empact’s IRA tax incentive management platform employs a unique combination of proprietary SaaS technology and professional services enable it to deliver the following features and benefits to its customers:

Seamless Compliance Data Collection: Empact’s platform automatically collects the required compliance data from a developer’s vendors to ensure the maximization of tax incentives and compliance with the various IRA requirements. This data includes 18 types of payroll data, manufacturing data, and project location.
Comprehensive Compliance Data Repository: Compliance data is collected both in the pre-construction qualification phase as well as during the construction of a project from start to finish. This data is stored in Empact’s compliance repository and enables developers and tax incentive buyers to easily share diligence information, making the tax credit sale transaction to be diligenced and executed efficiently.
Eliminates Need for Dedicated In-House Tax Experts: Empact works in concert with developer project managers so they can fully utilize or monetize IRA tax incentives without adding costly dedicated in-house tax compliance experts.

Closing Thoughts: While tax incentive compliance is not a new concept to many solar and wind developers, the IRA is also providing $400 billion of tax incentives across other energy transition areas, such as geothermal, carbon capture, sustainable aviation fuels, and hydrogen. To qualify for these funds, project developers and investors must meet complex and evolving federal compliance requirements. As these energy transition developers/operators look to ensure compliance and maximize their tax incentives, technologies like Empact’s will be critical in providing clarity and transparency to developer’s stakeholders and those looking to purchase tax credits. We look forward to following Empact Technologies, as they continue to provide additional value-added data solutions to the energy industry.

Company Spotlights

September 2023