New Software Will Reduce Time and Costs of Going Solar and Improve Customer Satisfaction
SAN FRANCISCO – November 16, 2015 – Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN) and Clean Power Research® today announced they have been awarded $900,000 by the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative to develop and deploy the first end-to-end solar permitting and interconnection software application for installers. The software will make it possible to automatically generate and electronically submit solar PV permit and interconnection applications. Online submissions will dramatically reduce the time and costs involved with permitting and interconnection, enabling faster project completion, lower costs, and happier customers.
“When a customer chooses to go solar, a residential solar permit is required. There are 18,000 building permit agencies in the U.S. and most have their own application process and rules,” said Gary Wayne, vice president for strategic projects at Sunrun. “Typically, this process is costly and adds up to four weeks of delay to a homeowner’s system installation timeline. The goal of the SunShot Incubator 10 project is to cut these costs and delay time in half – a big win for the entire industry that will help Sunrun create an even better customer experience.”
With the support of the SunShot Initiative, Sunrun and Clean Power Research will integrate their software platforms and add in new functionality that will automate the permitting process. As a result, Sunrun BrightPath™ users will be able to enter customer and system design information only once and automatically apply for permits and interconnection from utilities using Clean Power Research’s PowerClerk®.
“Clean Power Research has seen huge success helping to reduce soft costs stemming from interconnection and incentive processing,” said Jeff Ressler, president of software services at Clean Power Research. “With this project, we’ll leverage that experience to streamline permitting. Not only will the solar industry benefit, but building permit agencies will be able to leverage the same PowerClerk platform that utilities and energy agencies are using today to process more than 12,500 interconnection and incentive applications per month.”
Through previous Incubator 8 awards, SunShot partially funded the development of both Sunrun BrightPath and Clean Power Research’s PowerClerk Interconnect. Sunrun BrightPath is a proprietary software platform that manages the home solar process from selecting hardware to system design, pricing, scheduling, installation, and beyond. PowerClerk’s award-winning software brings application processing online for faster, smarter energy program management.
About the SunShot Initiative
The U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of the decade. Through SunShot, the Energy Department supports efforts by private companies, universities, and national laboratories to drive down the cost of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt-hour. Learn more at energy.gov/sunshot.
About Sunrun
Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN) is the largest dedicated residential solar company in the United States with a mission to create a planet run by the sun. Since establishing the solar as a service model in 2007, Sunrun continues to lead the industry in providing clean energy to homeowners with little to no upfront cost and at a savings to traditional electricity. The company designs, installs, finances, insures, monitors and maintains the solar panels on a homeowner’s roof, while families receive predictable pricing for 20 years or more. For more information please visit: www.sunrun.com.
About Clean Power Research
Clean Power Research is an award-winning innovator, delivering software products that enable customers to optimize financing, operation and integration of solar resources; engage consumers with personalized energy evaluations; and streamline business processes. Since 1998, utilities, government agencies, engineers, developers, manufacturers, installers and financiers have relied on Clean Power Research to power their businesses. Clean Power Research has offices in Napa, Calif., and Kirkland, Wash. For more information, visit www.cleanpower.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements regarding customer savings and benefits and project costs and timing. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved, if at all. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward looking statements. You should read the section entitled “Risk Factors” in Sunrun’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and identifies certain of these and additional risks and uncertainties. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.