Customer Story
Resonant Energy Cuts Project Timelines
by 3 months with Scanifly
Results From Using Scanifly
Company Overview
Resonant Energy’s mission is simple: bring solar power to under-invested communities throughout the Northeast. Their focus includes low-income housing developments and community nonprofits. A key part of the team’s success is building trust with multiple stakeholders and offering unique financing options that take full advantage of government rebates, grants, and other programs.
- Installed over 250 solar projects
- Deployed 9.4 MW of total capacity
- 60% of projects serve environmental justice communities
Company Snapshot
Resonant Energy was founded with a mission to help under-invested communities build wealth with solar.
As the company’s projects got larger, drones were a no-brainer.
The team ultimately chose Scanifly because of its accurate and efficient design tools.
The Challenge
Project delays caused by an over-reliance on EPCs and external partners
Before Scanifly, a typical project’s timeline and end-to-end process were too dependent upon the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction firms (EPCs). Several years ago, after signing an LOI (Letter of Intent) with a client, the Resonant team outsourced most of the work, using a basic remote PV layout to bid the project to various EPCs.
Like any solar developer, Resonant Energy wanted to minimize revisions and move through the project as quickly, accurately, and safely as possible.
As Resonant expanded and began working with nearly a third of all privately owned affordable housing providers in Massachusetts, the team recognized they needed to improve efficiency.
Their original manual surveying and design processes became a bottleneck as project sizes grew. This realization prompted Resonant Energy to bring surveying and design in-house and search for a solution to help facilitate and optimize the change.
“We had the complexity of information getting lost in translation by working with external partners who oversee design… to continue scaling across the Northeast and delivering solar to under-invested communities, we needed better technology to improve the speed and accuracy of our efforts. Scanifly was that essential solution,” said Co-CEO and Co-founder, Isaac Baker.
The Solution
Resonant Energy eliminates project delays by centralizing survey and design workflows
Resonant Energy turned to Scanifly’s drone-based survey and PV design platform. But new technology wasn’t the only hero. The team also brought on Senior Solar Design Manager, Pavel Saman, who led the adoption of Scanifly and ushered in this new era of operational excellence at Resonant.
”Having someone like Pavel, who’s so knowledgeable about the engineering and installation logistics, has been a game-changer for us. And because the drone flights and Scanifly are so easy to learn and use, we save 2 – 3 months and have more independence and control throughout the project,” said Greg Coppola, Senior Project Manager.
Building stakeholder trust through accurate data
No longer needing to sub out the survey and design work, the team uses Scanifly to quickly capture accurate site data and design the solar array precisely within the strict guidelines required. Stakeholders can now visualize the project in a photorealistic 3D environment, which builds trust and buy-in while eliminating potential change orders on install day.
Improving team efficiency and safety
With Scanifly and drones, their team can remain safely on the ground without compromising accuracy. From there, Pavel customizes the layouts in Scanifly to create plan sets that are ready for engineer stamping. Given the size and complexity of their projects, this resulted in enormous time savings almost immediately.
One such project was a townhome development—22 roofs, 650 KW. Before Scanifly, scheduling the site survey would have taken weeks, and the manual measurements would have taken the subcontractor days to complete, but with Scanifly, the entire process took just a couple of hours.
“It’s incredibly important for us to have access to accurate drawings as early as possible in our design process, and Scanifly enables us to do that much more quickly,” said Isaac.
Streamlining government rebates and subsidies
Resonant Energy helps project owners secure government rebates and subsidies they qualify for. While the team manages much of this process through paperwork, they must provide consistent, accurate plan sets when filing applications.
“This segment of the market requires accurate designs that remain consistent from start to finish,” said Isaac. Since integrating Scanifly, Resonant has cut the time from initial meeting to final design specifications in half.
Project Showcase
Bishop Stang High School
For a recent project on a critical infrastructure site near the coast, the Resonant team faced strict structural requirements. Specifically, the team needed to balance system size, roof load capacity, and high wind uplift standards without using expensive roof penetrations. Therefore, they needed a solution to speed up design customization and minimize costly delays, all while ensuring perfect accuracy.
Scanifly enabled Greg and Pavel to navigate the complex structural requirements through rapid design iterations and powerful 3D visualizations. Pavel used precise models to reduce design turnaround time and ensure code compliance at every stage. By leveraging Scanifly and their newly optimized process, the team shortened the design-to-contract timeline by 3 months.
The Impact
Continuing to build trust with communities at scale
As Resonant Energy grows, they’re looking to expand their team and take on even larger solar projects. To achieve that, they must continue building trust with the communities they serve.
Isaac explained that under-invested communities often worry others might take advantage of them, so Resonant uses a grassroots approach—building partnerships, educating stakeholders, and working directly with community organizers. Streamlining operations with Scanifly has been crucial in freeing up the team’s time to focus on these efforts.
“Scanifly has become an essential part of our toolkit. It helps us deliver solar to communities faster, more efficiently, and with complete confidence,” said Isaac.
