SAN FRANCISCO, CA — (Marketwire) — 09/15/11 — As part of the U.S. Department of Energy–s (DOE) SunShot initiative, has been awarded a $3 million grant to fund the development of a database and software to reduce solar permitting and data management costs in the United States. The SunShot Initiative seeks to make solar energy more cost-competitive, without long-term subsidies, and aims to reduce costs by 75% by the end of the decade.
“Today, permitting distributed solar projects is complicated, time-consuming and costly for American solar installers,” said Nat Kreamer, Clean Power Finance Chief Executive Officer and board member. “As the company with the largest number of solar installers, manufacturers, and distributors using our online solar sales platform, Clean Power Finance is uniquely positioned to create a valuable, open-source software tool and database to accelerate solar permitting and drive down compliance costs. The DOE award validates our team–s expertise in building and managing similar software and databases for the entire solar value chain.”
In response to the DOE–s Funding Opportunity Announcement, “Reducing Market Barriers and Non-Hardware Balance of System Costs,” Clean Power Finance proposed a database containing crowd-sourced information supplied from various stakeholders, including solar professionals and organizations. Clean Power Finance will encourage participation from its 1,400 plus customers, which include the largest solar integrators, panel manufacturers and electrical distributors in the U.S.
Clean Power Finance will also develop a suite of software applications, integrated with the database, to increase transparency and streamline the permitting process with municipal building departments. Users will be able to easily submit online applications and verify a system–s design meets permitting requirements. In addition to saving valuable time and eliminating paper, these tools will provide information on wait times and number of applications in the queue, allowing installers to plan jobs more efficiently.
Forty percent of residential solar systems sold in the U.S. last year were facilitated by Clean Power Finance–s platform. CPF Tools was the first SaaS, professional-grade solar quoting and proposal application on the market, and today represents the most comprehensive platform connecting solar system installation, design, sales and financing. Sign up for a free trial of CPF Tools and learn more about financing .
For more information on the Department of Energy, please visit
is driving the mass-market adoption of residential solar by building an online marketplace to connect the solar industry and the capital market. The company provides solar professionals, manufacturers and distributors with access to consumer financing, easy-to-use software and essential services. For investors and lenders, the company makes it easy to deploy capital in residential solar projects. Funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), Google Ventures and Claremont Creek Ventures, the company was started in 2007. To learn more about how we can accelerate the growth of your business, please visit
Whitney Phaneuf
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