How we help Designing a solar power system for a home is a process that relies on factors unique to each home. First, we model the roof in three dimensions to account for obstructions such as chimneys and vents. Second, we lay legally-mandated access walkways and place solar panels on the roof segments. Finally, we model the angle and exposure of sunlight hitting the roof to calculate the system's potential energy production. With Instant Design, we replicate this same process by leveraging tools including machine learning and optimization.

SunPower has launched a web application that can design rooftop solar projects in seconds. SunPower's Design Studio combines SunPowers's Instant Design technology, Google Cloud and Google Sunroof to deliver customizable residential solar designs that take into account roof size, shading and energy potential. Homeowners can modify their design based on their energy needs, resulting in more accurate predictions of electricity bill and energy savings. "With SunPower Design Studio, we've created a new solar buying experience," said Jake Wachman, digital VP for SunPower. "We're making solar accessible by enabling homeowners nationwide to envision solar on their home and understand savings at lightning-fast speeds. With SunPower Design Studio, we're changing how homeowners go solar."

At the edge of a plot of muddy farmland, a few miles down the road from the University of California at Davis, an engineer takes a few quick steps across crop rows and lets go of a three-foot drone. Within seconds, the device – which weighs less than 2lbs and carries a powerful camera – ascends hundreds of feet into the cold, clear, blue sky and begins to snap detailed photos of the ground far below, including a long row of large solar panels mounted on steel poles. This flight is just a test, demonstrated by Kingsley Chen, the drone fleet coordinator for SunPower at the solar company's research and development center, which is under construction and about a two-hour drive northeast of the San Francisco Bay Area. The drone will enable SunPower to survey a wide region and help design a solar power farm that can fit more solar panels on a piece of land, more quickly and for lower costs than it previously could. The test highlights a growing use of the latest computing technologies – drones, robots, software, sensors and networks – by US companies to design, build and operate solar farms.