Cut rooftop solar design time from 15 minutes to 30 seconds with AI auto-design
Sunnova
What they did with AI
US residential solar company Sunnova built OpenSolar's AI design engine into Catalyst, the app its authorized dealers use to sell systems. Sunnova SVP Jake Wachman told PV Tech that AI took design turnaround from about 15 minutes at best to 30 seconds, removed the back-and-forth with a central design team, and often catches trees, pipes and vents a salesperson might miss. He said many AI designs go from proposal to the field without changes, but a human still reviews each one in the proposal process. Context: Sunnova filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2025, and Solaris acquired its assets and operations that September.
Related use cases
Build solar proposals in under 10 minutes and cut change orders
Mpower Solar
New York City installer Mpower Solar uses AI-assisted design to build proposals for tricky canopy and tilt-mounted rooftops and adjust them live in meetings. Aurora reports proposal creation went from about 30 minutes to under 10, the change-order rate dropped from 50% to under 10%, and site surveys went from 2 hours to 30-60 minutes. The case study also says consistent design documentation led to fewer questions on submissions to state agencies and utilities.
Generate solar designs live, during the sales call
New Day Solar
New Day Solar's reps use Aurora AI to generate roof models and system designs in seconds, sometimes live on a customer call, so the conversation keeps moving. Aurora reports sales design time fell from about 30 minutes to about 30 seconds, complex proposals went from a day or more to under an hour, close rates rose 15%, and cleaner designs saved up to six hours of rework per project.
Cut initial solar design time from 15 minutes to 15 seconds
Simply Solar
Simply Solar's salespeople use Aurora AI to auto-generate the 3D roof model and first design. According to the case study, design time for sales went from 15 minutes to 15 seconds, experienced designers went from 3-5 minutes to 15 seconds for an initial design, and one designer can now handle the work of two to three people during peak periods.