Solar Software and AI with Curtis Merring of Aurora

At Intersolar San Diego, Sean sits down with Curtis Merring, Director of Product Marketing at Aurora Solar, about how Aurora and its C&I product HelioScope help installers design and sell solar remotely using aerial imagery, lidar, and accurate simulations, reducing soft costs and improving safety. Merring explains Aurora’s go-to-market marketing approach and notes the company has 7,000+ customers, with 70–80% of the industry touching its tools during a project lifecycle. They discuss why Aurora and HelioScope remain separate products, and how growing U.S. complexity—net metering shifting to net billing, rising electricity rates, grid uncertainty, and increased demand for storage and control—drives new needs like peak shaving and export decisions. He also describes Aurora’s AI-driven 3D modeling, trained on millions of projects, now generating models in under 10 seconds and increasingly used by both sales and designers.   Topics Covered: Ethos = Essence of the product creating Solar software Helioscope Lidar CNI Solar design Product marketing On Grid Excel spreadsheet Clean Power Finance Virtual power plants Bidirectional EVs Macrotrends Energy Management System Chris and Sam AI design   Reach out to Curtis Merring here: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/curtismerring Email: [email protected]   Website: www.aurorasolar.com   Learn more at www.solarSEAN.com and be sure to get NABCEP certified by taking Sean’s classes at www.heatspring.com/sean www.solarsean.com/pvds