Sunrun Inc. has unveiled Sunrun BrightPath™, the industry's first open end-to-end automated software platform that enables Sunrun and its certified partners to manage every aspect of a homeowner's solar system. In 2013, Sunrun was awarded a $1.6 million cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot Initiative to support the development and implementation of BrightPath.
From the moment a homeowner becomes interested in going solar through to their system installation, the software platform helps streamline the entire process from selecting hardware to system design through pricing, scheduling, permitting, installation and beyond. The technology also ensures that a solar system meets consumers' personal energy needs and savings goals, efficiently and accurately. Unlike other solar company technologies, BrightPath uses a cloud-based design system that automatically generates optimized designs.
"Further streamlining and automating the process of going solar for consumers makes their decision to choose clean energy even simpler and allows them to begin saving immediately on their electricity bills," said Lynn Jurich, Sunrun's chief executive officer. "Because of this industry-first innovation, more homeowners will have access to affordable solar energy customized for their lifestyle, faster installation of their system and superior customer and system service over the lifetime of their agreement with Sunrun."
A main component of BrightPath includes Sunrun's cloud-based automated design tool that can assess hundreds of variables and thousands of solar system designs in a matter of seconds, allowing customers to get a solar design that uniquely meets the needs of their home and lifestyle. The proprietary technology builds those designs by using the highest resolution imagery available for each household with access to multiple satellite imaging libraries. By understanding a homeowner's personal energy consumption and savings goals and combining that with roof design, sun exposure and the impact of shade through the seasons, BrightPath ensures homeowners get the optimal energy production and savings from their home solar system.
Sunrun BrightPath is powering sales across Sunrun today and will be available exclusively to Sunrun's certified partners this fall in the 12 states that the company serves. Adopting a single operating platform to run their business allows partners to engineer buildable designs within minutes of customer contact and manage the entire project through completion all in one place.
"We are highly committed to our channel business and actively develop solutions to increase our partners' sales efficiency and reduce the operational costs of running their business. The flexibility of the BrightPath platform also allows Sunrun and our partners to enter and scale quickly in new markets and reduce costs making us the partner of choice to grow the residential solar market nationwide," continued Jurich.
“As the first company to introduce solar as a service to American homeowners, Sunrun has reinvented the way people buy electricity. Sunrun gives homeowners access to the smartest energy source - sunlight - and takes care of everything so families can focus on more important things, like putting savings back in their pockets each month,†Jurich concluded.
