How Machine Learning Can Speed The Spread Of Solar-Powered Homes

For all its promise of delivering a bold future, the green energy industry is still decidedly low tech when it comes to moving merchandise. Solar panels are still sold door-to-door, a slow and expensive process that has impeded the industry's growth. Now, a California startup thinks it has a solution, using sophisticated data science to find consumers likely to adopt solar power and let them know just how much they can save on their electric bills. PowerScout, a machine-learning-enabled eCommerce platform for solar energy, aims to eliminate marketing costs that, according to CEO Attila Toth, can exceed the cost of the actual equipment for some green-power vendors. "This is very absurd--very crazy," Toth says.