How Data And Machine Learning Are Changing The Solar Industry

Predictive analytics can shave a huge portion off the price tag of solar because it eliminates the cost of finding homeowners who want clean energy. Says the PowerScout company. Feeding data to algorithms is a part of machine learning which is an artificial intelligence technique so that the machine learning-powered algorithms get better at figuring out patterns in the data. Turns out it can be helpful for selling solar panels!

There are many companies such as NEXTracker, kWh Analytics, PowerScout uses tons of data to work on multiple research divisions and projects for example: IBM (IBM, +1.14%), SunPower (SPWR, +0.64%), (GOOG, -1.10%) Project Sunroof. A British startup called Azuri, sells solar panels and batteries that are managed with cell phone tech, is now using machine learning to learn its customers usage patterns and an optimal way to manage the batteries and power sources.

Not only one specific data tool that is rocking the solar industry perhaps there’s a combination of many ways that data can reduce the cost of solar which later will prove crucial to transforming solar into a more mainstream energy source. CEO of PowerScout, Attila Toth, tells Fortune from the conference in Las Vegas that solar is "still being sold door-to-door just like vacuum cleaners in the 1950s." And it is no secret that consumers end up paying more, because of the high costs of the sales process itself, instead of just for the panels.

IBM's "self-learning weather model and renewable forecasting technology" (formerly called Watt-sun) is 50% more accurate than the next best solar forecasting model, says project manager Hendrik Hamann. Whereas, SunPower says it uses this data to improve panel technology, customer service and by the end of the year will be able to monitor and manage more than 1.8 gigawatts of solar panel projects!

For example, if a customer's battery starts to get low, the system will automatically adjust the brightness of the lights and slows the rate of cell phone charging as to make the energy last as long as possible. Other startups are using data to make it easier to finance the cost of installing solar. Many companies like Trademark Vision, Fanuc, Descartes Labs and etc, are using machine learning in a very innovative and astounding manners as forecasting, artificial intelligence (robots), solar panels and etc.