The Big Book of Commercial Solar Software Must-Haves

Design Solutions

Must-Have Features

1. Easy User Interface

A key aspect of choosing solar software is its ease of use. Having an easy-to-use interface is important for several reasons:

It reduces the onboarding time for current and future team members

  • It empowers your salespeople to create designs themselves
  • It speeds up your workflows so you can scale faster

2. HD Imagery

HD imagery is key to any solar software because it enables you to do remote site assessments. Instead of sending someone on-site, with HD imagery, you can assess the feasibility of a site directly from your office. Most solar software providers will have HD imagery, but some may have limited coverage, so be sure to ask what coverage they have in your target market. Top providers should have Nearmap integrated into their platform. If you have other image resources you use — like from drones, for example — the software should let you upload them seamlessly.

3. Bankable Shade Reports

Shade modeling improves the accuracy of your energy estimates by calculating how shading from nearby trees, obstructions, and surrounding buildings will affect performance. Make sure that your solar software provider has been validated by NREL and all major rebate authorities.

4. Performance Simulation

Performance simulations and shading calculations allow you to forecast the energy production of your designs in a realistic 3D environment and provide those estimations to your customer. Look for software tools that allow you to easily simulate and rerun simulations so you can make changes to your project in real-time with your customer.

5. Easy-to-Use Utility Rate Building Tool

Commercial utility rates are complicated, so it’s great to have an easy-to-use tool to build utility rates with good accuracy. Software providers often provide access to utility rate libraries, however, they should also include a utility rate-building tool that can help you create, edit, and update any utility rate.

6. Permit-Ready Designs

One of the biggest obstacles that can slow down your growth as a solar business are change orders. If your solar software isn’t set up to create permit-ready designs, you’ll end up wasting a lot of time going back and forth between your design and the permitting authority. You should look for software that provides single-line diagrams and DXF files, which can speed up your sale to installation time and reduce your headaches tremendously.

Next up...

Design Special Features

Next, let's take a look at the special commercial design features that make top software solutions stand out from the rest.