What is AI Solar Design (Automated PV Design)?
TL;DR
AI that auto-recognizes roofs from aerial or satellite imagery to compute panel layouts and energy production.
AI Solar Design (Automated PV Design): Definition & Explanation
AI solar design (automated PV design) is technology that automates solar PV system design by analyzing high-resolution aerial imagery, satellite photos, and LiDAR data with computer vision. It automatically extracts roof area, pitch, orientation, and obstructions, simulates shading from surrounding buildings and trees in 3D, and calculates irradiance by time of day and season. Combined with weather data, it accurately predicts annual production and electricity-bill savings, enabling design, quoting, and proposal generation from the office without a site visit. Representative tools include Aurora Solar, OpenSolar, Solargraf, and Scanifly. It increases proposals per rep, shortens proposal lead times, and lifts close rates. Outside North America, support for local feed-in tariffs, utility buyback terms, and regional irradiance data is a key consideration at adoption.