SunPower Design Studio Enables Millions of Future Solar Homeowners to Create Custom Solar Designs Instantly
New Digital Experience Builds on Company's Strategic Investment in Software and Machine Learning Technology to Generate Residential Demand
Sep 09, 2019, 08:05 ET
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the introduction of Instant Design at Google Cloud Next '19, SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) today launched its Design Studio, a web application that combines Instant Design technology, Google Cloud, and Google Sunroof data to deliver customizable home solar designs in seconds.
Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8252055-sunpower-design-studio-custom-solar-designs/
Historically, understanding a home's solar potential required talking to a sales consultant or compromising with one-size-fits-all online calculators. Starting today, SunPower Design Studio gives U.S. homeowners the power to create their own solar system design automatically. In less than 30 seconds, SunPower Design Studio provides a panel layout based on the home's unique roof, shading, and energy potential. Homeowners can modify their design based on their energy needs, resulting in more accurate predictions of electricity bill and energy savings.
"With SunPower Design Studio, we've created a new solar buying experience," said Jake Wachman, vice president, digital, SunPower. "We're making solar accessible by enabling homeowners nationwide to envision solar on their home and understand savings at lightning-fast speeds. With SunPower Design Studio, we're changing how homeowners go solar."
SunPower Design Studio Experience
From a mobile phone or computer, homeowners enter their address and estimated monthly electric bill into the SunPower Design Studio web app. The application then presents a customized SunPower Equinox® solar design, including panels, a battery storage system, and energy production estimates.
Homeowners have the freedom to change the number of SunPower® panels on their roof, guided by a color code that identifies which panels will receive the most sun and therefore provide the most energy. As the homeowner adds panels – if anticipating an electric vehicle purchase in the future, for example – or removes them to meet current energy needs, projected energy production and potential electricity bill savings update in real time. Visit the SunPower blog to see how it works.
SunPower solar experts are available via chat or phone throughout the SunPower Design Studio experience to answer any questions as they arise. When homeowners want to bring their design to life, SunPower will connect them with a local dealer from its nationwide network of certified installers.
New Technology Drives Continuous Solar Design Improvement
SunPower Design Studio is powered by the company's proprietary Instant Design technology. By combining SunPower's decades of solar system sales and design experience with data from Google Maps and Google Project Sunroof, Instant Design uses machine learning and high-resolution imagery to design solar power systems for residential roofs in seconds. After entering an address, SunPower machine learning algorithms draw the home's roof, detect obstructions such as skylights and vents, and determine solar exposure for every point on the roof. The software automatically places SunPower solar panels according to local construction code.
As with other SunPower-developed software, the company will release Design Studio to select dealers to enable greater marketing reach, improve homeowner understanding of solar, and shorten sales cycles. As the application learns with each new design, SunPower also expects to reduce system design costs compared to manual methods.
For a deeper dive into SunPower Instant Design technology, read SunPower's guest post on Google Cloud's blog.
Untapped Solar Potential, Now Accessible to Everyone
While the United States has surpassed two million solar installations according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, only 2 percent of eligible homeowners have installed solar. There are roughly 100 million future solar homeowners in the United States.
"At the current rate, we would need a century to create designs manually for all American homeowners who don't yet have solar," Wachman continued. "With SunPower Design Studio, we have the capability to deliver thousands of customized solar roof designs quickly, direct to the homeowner, drastically simplifying the solar experience, and encouraging more consumers to explore solar as a reliable, cost-effective energy option."
To create a home solar design today, visit www.sunpower.com/design. Solar Power International 2019 attendees can also visit booth 4329 for a live demonstration with a solar expert.
About SunPower
As one of the world's most innovative and sustainable energy companies, SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) provides a diverse group of customers with complete solar solutions and services. Residential customers, businesses, governments, schools and utilities around the globe rely on SunPower's more than 30 years of proven experience. From the first flip of the switch, SunPower delivers maximum value and superb performance throughout the long life of every solar system. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, SunPower has dedicated, customer-focused employees in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America. For more information about how SunPower is changing the way our world is powered, visit www.sunpower.com.
SunPower's Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding product performance. These forward-looking statements are based on our current assumptions, expectations, and beliefs and involve substantial risks and uncertainties that may cause results, performance, or achievement to materially differ from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: regulatory changes and the availability of economic incentives promoting use of solar energy and fluctuations or declines in the performance of our solar panels and other products and solutions. A detailed discussion of these factors and other risks that affect our business is included in filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from time to time, including our most recent reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, particularly under the heading "Risk Factors." Copies of these filings are available online from the SEC or on the SEC Filings section of our Investor Relations website at investors.sunpowercorp.com. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information currently available to us, and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events.
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