SiteCaptureAI for Solar is an AI-powered field reporting and quality control tool developed by SiteCapture. The product is designed to automate jobsite documentation, quality control and reporting workflows across solar field operations. The platform enables solar site surveys, installations, TPO financing, O&M, and more. Kamal Shah, founder and CEO of SiteCapture, joined The Pitch to discuss the company’s latest tool for the solar industry and the impacts of AI on the solar industry at large.

Key quotes

How is AI impacting the solar industry?

Shah: I would think about that in two ways. There’s the external, macro impact that AI is having, and then there’s what’s happening internally in the industry as it relates to AI and solar. From an external perspective, we all know that AI is fast growing, and it consumes massive amounts of electricity, driving up prices and demand. And the most efficient way to meet that demand is solar. So in terms of the impact it has on the industry as a whole, that’s what it does. If we talk about internally within the industry, AI can really be leveraged to drive down just the overall cost to sell, install and maintain solar. But I think today we’re just really scratching the surface. In the industry, there’s a lot of conversations around the soft cost of solar. One of the greatest ways that we could reduce the cost of solar is reduce those soft costs, and I think that’s where really where AI can have an impact. Soft costs are really all the manual steps and all the manual processing, all the work that gets done, the cost outside of equipment and hardware.
I think AI can have a huge impact in reducing those.

How can SiteCaptureAI for Solar help companies meet requirements for TPO financing?

Shah: TPO means “third-party owned,” which means there’s a third party that installs, owns and maintains the system and leases it to the customers. The advantage to customers is they get a fixed price, which is a greatly reduced price from what they were spending on their current energy bills, and also the TPO company is responsible for the maintenance of the system and keeping it running optimally. It’s a model that’s been around for a while … but [with the passing of OBBBA], it’s become a more prevalent model for solar, It’s probably going to be two-thirds of the installs this year. For installers, it’s actually quite different because … the systems need to be third-party ownership, so the owners really require very specific documentation and have these very specific quality control requirements at different milestones of the project. That is where SiteCapture comes in to make it really easy to get the right documentation, make sure it’s captured the first time, avoid that extra truck roll and then have SiteCaptureAI also ensure that all that documentation is complete, accurate and compliant with the financing requirements.

What is the future of AI in solar?

Shah: I think we’re going to see AI get embedded more and more in every step of the life cycle and really finding a way to make it more proactive, real-time guidance and really deeply embedded into the workflows they do today, It’s going to do things like automate reporting and it’s going to automate QC processes as they go. I think it’s going to allow photos and video to become even more of a primary mechanism for documenting and reporting where all the structured information can be extracted from the photos and video, so it makes it easier for field teams not have to click tons of buttons and enter tons of information manually. The photos and the videos will capture most of it. That’ll go a long way. I think the other part of it is around when it comes to O&M is really getting predictive insights into the installations that exist today. Identify failures before they happen. Be able to identify things that are are ready to be refurbished or new equipment that needs to be installed. Moving toward a fully aided workflow with human oversight around these cumbersome, manual processes.

Timestamps

• 0:58 Impacts of AI in Solar
• 3:14 Improving Efficiency in the Wake of OBBB
• 5:21 Overview of SiteCaptureAI for Solar
• 8:16 Using AI to Comply with TPO Financing
• 11:47 The Future of AI in Solar Development
• 13:20 Ensuring AI Tools Are Smart Enough for Solar
• 12:21 The Next AI Innovation for Solar

Watch the video on YouTube.

Tags: artificial intelligence, automation, SiteCapture, TPO financing