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Houston tech company expands platform to include renewable certificates

Molecule Software made enhancements to its product, called Hive, to enable its clients to manage their energy portfolio and renewable credits together in one scalable platform. Image via molecule.io

A Houston-based energy trading risk management software company announced enhancements to its platform that will simplify the process of managing and allocating renewable energy certificates — a tool to help to meet demand obligations.

Molecule Software made these new enhancements to its product, called Hive, to enable its clients to manage their energy portfolio and renewable credits together in one scalable platform. With Hive, users simplify massive data stacks and reduce manual workloads while preventing errors.

“Renewables are still a new frontier, and one of the biggest challenges we’ve seen is modeling all their nuances in a way that makes sense for informing retirement and predicting the market,” says Sameer Soleja, founder and CEO of Molecule, in a news release. “Another major challenge is the sheer volume of data associated with modeling certificates and their individual serial numbers.”

Hive was first onboarded to Molecule’s core ETRM platform in 2022, and already provides its users renewable certificate management — including trading, forecasting, minting, matching, allocation, and traceback. Now, Hive also has improved visibility, navigation, auditing, and more — all tools that make renewable certificates easier to manage and meet carbon offset obligations.

“Renewable certificates are becoming de rigueur in the market as energy companies’ businesses grow and they open new trading desks for them. Molecule offers what we see as the most mature solution in the market for handling renewable instruments, reliably and at scale,” continues Soleja. “We’re continuing to build more within Molecule to make that functionality even more valuable for our customers.”

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A View From HETI

Tesla sales are down to start the year. Getty Images

Tesla sales fell 13% in the first three months of the year, another sign that Elon Musk’s once high-flying electric car company is struggling to attract buyers.

The double-digit drop is likely due to a combination of factors, including its aging lineup, competition from rivals and a backlash from Musk’s embrace of right wing politics. It also is a warning that the company’s first-quarter earnings report later this month could disappoint investors.

Tesla reported deliveries of 336,681 globally in the January to March quarter. The figure was down from sales of 387,000 in the same period a year ago. The decline came despite deep discounts, zero financing and other incentives.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected much higher deliveries of 408,000.

Dan Ives of Wedbush said in a note to clients that Tesla is seeing soft demand in the United States and China, as well as facing pressure in Europe.

“The brand crisis issues are clearly having a negative impact on Tesla...there is no debate,” he said.

Ives said that Wall Street financial analysts knew the first-quarter figures were likely to be bad, but that it was even worse than expected, calling them a “disaster on every metric.”

The sales drop came three weeks after President Donald Trump held an extraordinary press conference outside the White House in which he praised Tesla, blasted boycotts against the company and bought a Tesla himself while TV cameras rolled in an effort to help lift sales.

“I don’t like what’s happening to you,” said Trump, before slipping into a red Model S and exclaiming, “Wow. That’s beautiful.”

After falling as much as 6% in early Wednesday, Tesla stock shot up more than 5% in afternoon trading after a report from Politico, citing anonymous sources, that Musk may soon step down from leadership of his Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting group that has led to tens of thousands of federal workers losing their jobs.

Tesla investors have complained the DOGE work has diverted Musk's focus from Tesla, where he is the CEO. On Tuesday, New York City's comptroller overseeing pension funds down $300 million this year on Tesla holdings called for a lawsuit accusing a distracted Musk of "driving Tesla off a financial cliff.”

Tesla’s stock has plunged by roughly half since hitting a mid-December record as expectations of a lighter regulatory touch and big profits with Donald Trump as president were replaced by fear that the boycott of Musk's cars and other problems could hit the company hard.

Analysts are still not sure exactly how much the fall in sales is due to the protests or other factors. Electric car sales have been sluggish in general, and Tesla in particular is suffering as car buyers hold off from buying its bestselling Model Y while waiting for an updated version.

Still, even bullish financial analysts who earlier downplayed the backlash to Musk’s polarizing political stances are acknowledging that it is hurting the company, something that Musk also recently acknowledged.

“This is a very expensive job,” Musk said at a Wisconsin rally on Sunday, referring to his DOGE role. “My Tesla stock and the stock of everyone who holds Tesla has gone roughly in half."

The protests come as the Austin, Texas electric vehicle maker faces fierce competition from other EV makers offering vastly improved models, including those of BYD. The Chinese EV giant unveiled in March a technology that allows it cars to charge up in just five to eight minutes.

Tesla is expected to report earnings of 48 cents per share for the first quarter later this month, up 7% from a year earlier, according to a survey of financial analysts who the car company by research firm FactSet.

Nearly all of Tesla’s sales in the quarter came from the smaller and less-expensive Models 3 and Y, with the company selling less than 13,000 more expensive models, which include X and S as well as the Cybertruck.

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