This startup is turning roofs of New York rent-stabilized buildings into an enormous, distributed power plant

At an aging seven-story apartment building in the South Bronx, the landlord recently faced an expensive problem: a leaking roof. The repairs were pricey enough, and installing solar panels wasn’t on the agenda. But a couple of months earlier, the building partnered with a startup that took care of both at no cost to the owner—financing roof remediation through a rooftop solar project that now sells power to the grid.