Aurora Solar
Solar design software: a finished solar-plus-storage design in Aurora Design Mode

Fast, accurate solar design software

Design Mode gives your team a specialized CAD environment, AI-powered automation, and validated simulation, so you can create installable designs remotely in minutes. Fewer truck rolls, fewer change orders, lower soft costs.

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Trusted by the industry's best

  • 7 in 10

    top U.S. solar contractors use Aurora

  • 20M+

    projects designed on Aurora

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  • momentum solar logo
  • namaste solar
  • SUNation energy logo
Remote solar design in Aurora: a drone flight path, captured photos, and a 3D roof mesh
Remote solar design in Aurora: a drone flight path, captured photos, and a 3D roof mesh LIDAR shading analysis in Aurora Design Mode showing how nearby trees shade a home's roof Aurora AutoDesigner layout with solar panels, fire pathways, and strings on a residential roof Solar and battery storage designed together in Aurora Design Mode Finished solar-plus-storage design in Aurora with the inverter, panels, and battery configuration

From address to installable design

Design remotely and nearly eliminate truck rolls. Build a 3D model of the home from LIDAR, satellite imagery, or your own drone capture.

See shade before you place a panel. LIDAR-based shading analysis shows how trees and nearby structures affect production.

Let automation do the heavy lifting. AutoDesigner, Auto Place Fire Pathways, and AutoStringer handle panel layout, fire pathways, and stringing.

Design solar and storage on the same project, without switching tools.

Build once for sales, permits, and install. One design carries through the project, so fewer details change between the sale and the install.

LIDAR-based shading analysis in Aurora: a 3D home model with a roof irradiance heat map

Validated accuracy

Accuracy tested with NREL

  • ±3 pts

    from on-site shade readings, with LIDAR

  • 98%

    of remote measurements within stated bounds

See the studies
Aurora AI detecting roof structure before adding solar panels

Built for designers

Your design, your call

Choose how much to automate. Design every detail by hand, let Aurora AI build the roof model while you finish the rest, or automate the whole design and review it before it goes out. Enterprise teams can run it all through the Aurora API. Customizable defaults keep every design to your team's standards.

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What changes after the switch

  • Andres L.

  • Sales Operations Support at Kodiak Roofing and Waterproofing
With Solo, I kept running into inaccurate designs and slow proposal turnaround. Switching to Aurora was a game-changer. I can turn around designs in under 30 minutes, my close rate jumped from 30% to 65%, and we’ve seen fewer change orders and smoother handoffs. If you’re on the fence, don’t doubt it—Aurora is practical, efficient, and constantly improving.

  • Dustin M.

  • CEO of Power Solar
We’ve used Solo, OpenSolar, and Solargraf. Our biggest issues across other platforms have been scalability and inaccurate information—especially with shading. Aurora allowed us to build a standard process across our business that’s both scalable and extremely accurate. It’s helped us reduce proposal time from 1–2 hours to under 20 minutes and improve team efficiency across the board.

  • Alex Chelius

  • Proposal Manager, Momentum Solar
Aurora has given us the ability to design efficiently and be confident that we’re providing to the customer a detailed representation of what is going to be on-site without traveling there.
Smiling man in a blue shirt against a grey background.

  • Steve Brooke

  • VP of Sales, Baker Electric
It's such a game-changer that we don’t have to take Suneye readings anymore which saves us time and money. It's wonderful to utilize a platform like Aurora to be so confident in what the system will produce.
A smiling person posing for a selfie with colorful artwork on the wall in the background.

  • George Young

  • Director of Solar Development, Solar Energy Services
We’ve had 4 cases where customers didn’t agree with the measurements on the Aurora design that we presented virtually. We decided to go out to the site and measure the house by hand with the homeowner, and in every instance, Aurora was correct. They were actually wrong about the measurements of their own home. The accuracy of the Aurora software, combined with our willingness to put it to the test on-site, helped close the deal each time!

What comes after the design

Ready to sell?

Turn your design into an interactive proposal in Sales Mode.

See Sales Mode

Ready to true up?

After the sale, fly the roof and merge the drone data with the sold design to catch differences before permit.

Drone mapping

Ready to permit?

Generate plan sets from your design with Instant Plan Sets where available, or order them from Plan Sets Service.

See plan sets

Questions about Design Mode

chevron What is Design Mode?
  • Design Mode is Aurora's solar PV system design software: a CAD environment for remote solar and storage designs
  • Designers use it to create designs for sales, permits, and install
chevron How accurate is Design Mode?
  • In a blind study with NREL, Aurora's remote shading matched on-site SunEye readings within ±3 solar access points where LIDAR is available
  • A second NREL study found Aurora's remote measurements within stated accuracy bounds 98% of the time
  • Simulations account for degradation, soiling, snow, and the components you select
chevron Can I design battery storage in Design Mode?
  • Yes. Design solar and battery storage on the same project.
chevron Can I use Design Mode designs for permits?
  • Yes. Generate plan sets from your design with Instant Plan Sets where available, or order them through Plan Sets Service.
chevron Can I true up a design after the sale?
  • Yes. Upload drone images or video, then merge a Drone Expert Model with the sold design.
  • You catch differences before permit, not after crews arrive
  • Base drone mapping is included in Enterprise plans. See drone mapping.
chevron Is Aurora AI included?
  • Aurora AI is available on Enterprise plans
  • Already on Aurora? Talk to your account manager about upgrading.
chevron Can Design Mode automate the whole design?
  • Yes. Aurora AI, AutoDesigner, Auto Place Fire Pathways, and AutoStringer can take a design from roof model to stringing.
  • Enterprise teams can also run them through the Aurora API, then have a designer review the result
chevron Do I have to use automation?
  • No. Design every detail by hand, start from an automated layout, mix both, or let automation do it all.
chevron How much does Design Mode cost?
  • Design Mode is included in every Aurora plan. See plans and pricing.
  • Fewer truck rolls and change orders help lower your soft costs on every project
chevron Can Aurora design projects for me?

See what Design Mode can do for your team

Let’s see how Design Mode fits your team.