Five teams were selected to participate in the SunShot Prize: Race to 7-Day Solar.
Northern and Central California SunShot Alliance
This group, consisting of PG&E, SolarCity, Accela, and Qado, intends to design and implement a next day, or even same day, end-to-end process – from online solar building permit application to Permission to Operate (PTO) letter from the power utility. Although this goal is significantly faster than what may be required to win this competition, the group believes it is achievable given the demonstrated track record of success by individual members. The team of industry leaders will work with local jurisdictions to further revolutionize the end-to-end process and cycle times for rooftop solar installations, jointly designing the best processes that consider the needs and capabilities of all parties.
Sunrun
Sunrun, the largest dedicated residential solar company in the U.S., is involved in all aspects of solar marketing, sales, design, permitting, financing, installation, interconnection, operation, and monitoring. It manages its direct business and partner network through BrightPath, the industry’s first open and end-to-end workflow automation platform. Development of BrightPath was partially supported by a SunShot Initiative Incubator 8 Award. BrightPath will be used to reach the goal of helping customers go solar in seven days by providing workflow automation, automatic design generation, shade analysis, energy simulation, pricing and contract generation, real-time change order management, and automatic permit-set generation.
The Solar Auditor
The Solar Auditor teamed up with some of the best and brightest solar innovators in Southern California who will work to reduce the time from permit to Permission to Operate (PTO) to seven days, including Aurora Solar, CNG Solar Engineering, Fortune Energy, Financial Advisor Jaci Haas, Home Inspector John Buckley, PV Concepts, Repower Solar, Restart Solar, Simply Solar, Skyfire, Solar Verified, SunStrong Structural, and Your SolarMate. The team will offer a very wide range of services, products and software to make the Solar Auditor the most comprehensive solar broker and marketplace in the country, and will be offering leases for the industry’s top quality equipment.
The Connecticut Permit to Plug-in Team
The Connecticut Permit to Plug-in Challenge is a collaborative effort between the Connecticut Green Bank, the state’s investor-owned utilities, contractors representing nearly 60% of the state’s solar market, and a number of municipalities across the state. The team will take a multi-pronged strategic approach to the competition to identify, create, and implement innovative practices that significantly accelerate solar installation times in Connecticut. The team will introduce greater efficiencies into the state’s approval and installation processes for solar PV while supporting market growth through ongoing incentive and financing programs. The team will rely on detailed project tracking and evaluation to inform and replicate strategies that positively impact project completion times.
Midwestern Solar
Midwestern Solar’s goal throughout the contest is to bring the benefits of solar energy to southeast Missouri and change how the solar industry operates the City of Poplar Bluff, Kennett, Malden, Doniphan, Columbia, and Farmington. By engaging Poplar Bluff and Ozark Border Electric Cooperative, Midwestern Solar will leverage its partners to make solar easier and cheaper for customers while boosting the local economy of southeast Missouri.
Learn more about the SunShot Prize, Goals, Rules.