Our Story

About NED

New Energy Diligence was founded in 2024 to bring AI-assisted efficiency to the technical and tech-related commercial due diligence underlying renewable energy M&A, project finance, underwriting, and tax credit transfers. Anthropic’s Claude accelerates the analytical work. Jon Previtali’s expertise and personal review of every deliverable makes it reliable.

Jon Previtali, Co-Founder

At Wells Fargo, Jon built the bank’s technical due diligence practice for renewable energy and fuel cell tax equity financing from the ground up — helping to scale the business to over $2 billion in annual tax equity deployments and $10 billion of tax equity financing supporting approximately $30 billion of projects. He negotiated technical language for term sheets and project and transaction agreements, contributed to investment memos and credit committee presentations, and supported both project origination and portfolio asset management.

At VDE Americas — a wholly-owned subsidiary of one of Europe’s largest technology and standards organizations — Jon served as VP and Senior Principal Engineer. He continued advising Wells Fargo and other major tax equity and traditional equity investors, along with project developers and equipment companies in the tracker and module space. He led a team specializing in hail risk advisory and advised owners, investors, developers, and manufacturers on bankability, risk mitigation, and due diligence.

Jon initiated and oversaw development of the leading hail risk model for solar — now used across the industry to inform investment, underwriting, and asset management decisions for one of the most consequential weather risks facing solar assets.

Before banking, Jon was a member of Black & Veatch’s Solar PV Services team, supporting independent engineering, owner engineering, and construction monitoring for utility-scale and distributed generation portfolios. Earlier he held product management and advisory roles at SunEdison, commercializing fleet monitoring, O&M, and remote operations platforms for solar fleets.

Early in his career Jon held product management roles at Digital Island, acquired by Cable & Wireless — a global provider of data center infrastructure, managed internet services, and content delivery supporting clients including Cisco, Microsoft, Sony, and E*TRADE across 55+ data centers. He also consulted for HOMER Energy — now part of UL — the global standard for microgrid modeling and optimization used in 190+ countries. These experiences give Jon direct insight into the technical and commercial challenges facing data center developers and operators as AI drives explosive growth in power demand — global data center electricity consumption is projected to more than double by 2030.

Jon holds a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University and an MS in Building Systems Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is an instructor at UC Merced PACE, teaching Introduction to Solar Analysis & Due Diligence.

Jon serves on a number of industry boards and advisory committees. He is a Founding Member of the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) — a $50 million clean-tech incubator co-administered with NREL — and a Founding Industry Advisory Board Member of DuraMAT, the DOE-funded consortium led by NREL focused on accelerating commercialization of new PV module materials. He is a Board Member of PowerMark, which oversees the US Technical Advisory Groups for solar industry standards, and an Industry Advisory Board Member of Sandia PACT, focused on performance and reliability testing for emerging PV technologies.

---

Nolan Erck, Co-Founder

As VP of Engineering at e-Mission Control — a SaaS platform designed to accelerate renewable energy adoption across the US and Canada — Nolan architected all software development, infrastructure, and QA from the ground up, hiring and mentoring the full engineering and product team.

As US Engineering Manager at DistroKid — one of the world’s leading music distribution platforms — Nolan managed developers, QA engineers, and systems operations staff across concurrent projects, doubled the engineering team in four months, and built the automated testing infrastructure from scratch.

Through South of Shasta, his software consultancy, Nolan collaborated to create secure, high-reliability systems for Adobe, AeroJet, Intuit, Oregon Health & Science University, and Schools Financial Credit Union, among others. He also led software development and integration of VDE Americas’ customer portal and storefront.

Earlier in his career Nolan held engineering roles at LucasArts (Grim Fandango, Jedi Knight) and Maxis (SimSafari, SimPark, Streets of SimCity). He is the founder of the Sacramento Interactive Tech Meetup and a frequent speaker, educator, and tech editor in the software development community.

Nolan holds an AS in Computer and Information Science from Solano Community College.

---

Meghan Sheedy, Marketing

At NED, Meghan works as a consultant to clients in need of promoting projects, products, and services — translating technically complex messaging into language easily understood by clients and the generation market. She also leads NED’s marketing, communications, and brand, ensuring the firm’s expertise in renewable energy due diligence and software development reaches the developers, investors, and lenders who need it.

Meghan brings NED a career built at the intersection of communications, brand, operations, and technical due diligence for the renewable energy sector. As Business Operations Manager and Marketing Coordinator at VDE Americas from 2022 to 2026, she supported the growth of one of the renewable energy industry’s leading technical due diligence and independent engineering firms — giving her direct insight into the workflows, clients, and communication demands of the sector NED serves.

Before VDE Americas, Meghan was a Manager at Studio Forbes, where she launched Public Bikes — one of the most recognizable bike brands of its era and the company that spearheaded the commuter bike movement. Earlier, as a Studio Account Executive at Design Within Reach, she managed client relationships and account operations for the design retailer’s professional studio practice, based in Boulder, Colorado.

Meghan spent the first decade of her career in San Francisco’s public relations and communications industry. As an independent consultant in Art & Design Public Relations, she advised clients on brand positioning, media relations, and communications strategy. Prior to that she held account management roles at GCI and FleishmanHillard — a global top-five communications firm — where she developed broad expertise in media relations, client management, and integrated marketing. She began her career in marketing operations at Gap Inc. / Banana Republic.

Meghan holds a BA in Psychology from the University of San Francisco.

---

Looking Ahead

Renewable energy deployment is growing rapidly, but due diligence bottlenecks slow the pace of financing and acquisition. NED’s vision is an AI platform any qualified expert can use to expedite technical and commercially-related due diligence for any type of project — making rigorous analysis faster and more accessible across the industry. Underlying everything we do is a commitment to using technology as a force against climate change. If you’re interested in becoming a content partner or collaborating on the platform, contact us.