Sunruns BrightPath software platform recognized in U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Prize: Race to 7-Day Solar

SAN FRANCISCO, June 23, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunrun Inc. (Nasdaq:RUN), the largest dedicated residential solar company in the United States, today announced it has been named a SunShot Prize Change Champion by the U.S. Department of Energys SunShot Initiative for slashing the time it takes to get solar on a home. BrightPath, Sunruns innovative software platform, powered the substantial time reduction by streamlining Sunruns installation process.

The SunShot Prize: Race to 7-Day Solar launched in September 2015 with the goal of motivating local governments, communities, solar companies and electric utilities to reduce the time it takes to go solar to one week. In some regions across the United States, it takes up to six months to connect to the grid. Sunrun was selected as a Change Champion from among five organizations participating in the race for permitting, installing and flipping the switch on more than 3 MW of rooftop solar in approximately one month. As a Change Champion, Sunrun will be awarded $100,000 and will continue innovating time reductions until March 2017 when the SunShot Initiative will award two grand prizes totaling $4 million.
"Sunruns proprietary technology, BrightPath, is designed to make the process of getting solar simple, quick and affordable for homeowners," said Gary Wayne, vice president of strategic projects at Sunrun. "Were honored to announce that with BrightPath weve successfully exceeded DOEs installation challenge and earned the distinction of Change Champion."
BrightPath was developed in part with support from a SunShot Initiative Incubator 8 award. The software provides workflow automation, automatic design generation, shade analysis, energy simulation, pricing and contract generation, real-time change order management, and automatic permit-set generation. It significantly reduces wait times and lowers soft costs of installing residential rooftop solar, which can account for more than half the price of the solar system.
Sunrun invented solar-as-a-service to help homeowners go solar without the high upfront cost and hassle. Today Sunrun is focused on innovating new solutions like BrightPath and Sunrun BrightBox™, a solar power plus energy storage product, to continue to drive down the cost of electricity and offer customers more choice and control.
About Sunrun
Sunrun (Nasdaq:RUN) is the largest dedicated residential solar company in the United States with a mission to create a planet run by the sun. Since establishing the solar as a service model in 2007, Sunrun continues to lead the industry in providing clean energy to homeowners with little to no upfront cost and at a savings to traditional electricity. The company designs, installs, finances, insures, monitors and maintains the solar panels on a homeowner's roof, while families receive predictable pricing for 20 years or more. For more information please visit: www.sunrun.com.
About the SunShot Initiative
The U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of the decade. Through SunShot, the Energy Department supports efforts by private companies, universities, and national laboratories to drive down the cost of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt-hour. Learn more at energy.gov/sunshot.