The mission of the SunSpec Alliance is to accelerate the growth of the renewable energy industry by driving data- and communications interoperability standards. The Alliance is comprised of individuals and companies representing the renewable energy components (inverters, PV panels, string combiners, monitoring hardware, trackers, environmental sensors, and balance-of-system components), networking firms, software firms, computer hardware companies, project development firms, system integrators, financial institutions, regulatory agencies, and energy consumers.
To better understand the philosophy of the SunSpec Alliance and its role in the marketplace, please watch this video about the SunSpec Alliance . You can also learn more by clicking here to download the SunSpec Backgrounder.
SunSpec Alliance Organizational Charter
Additional purposes of the SunSpec Alliance include:
- Enabling growth of the renewable energy market worldwide by defining open interface standards for the renewable energy industry, thus enabling renewable energy systems to interact with information technology systems predictably and reliably;
- Making appropriate use of standards created by other standards bodies, agencies and associations wherever possible;
- Promoting the ratification, approval and adoption of such specifications recommendations developed by the SunSpec Alliance to manufacturers, systems integrators and regulatory agencies, and energy consumers;
- Establishing certification guidelines and procedures to ensure compatibility and interoperability of the standard recommendations among third party products;
- Providing a forum and environment whereby the SunSpec Alliance’s Members may meet to define and publish recommendations; and provide a forum whereby users may meet with developers and providers of related products and services to identify requirements for interoperability and general usability; and
- Educating the business, regulatory and consumer communities as to the value, benefits and applications for such a standard in consumer and commercial products and services through public statements, publications, trade shows demonstrations, seminar sponsor-ships and other programs established by the SunSpec Alliance.
Governance
The SunSpec Alliance is governed by a Board of Directors who are elected annually. Steering Committees provide leadership and guidance for Technical and Marketing activities. Technical working groups have developed SunSpec compliance specifications for inverters, meters and environmental equipment. Marketing working groups are developing member outreach and product certification programs.
Industry Alliances
As an international industry consortium, the SunSpec Alliance aligns itself with international standards bodies and industry consortia whenever possible to further development of SmartGrid and renewable industry standards.
Websites, Copyrights, and Domain Names
The SunSpec Alliance maintains several websites and domains including SunSpec.org and SunSpecAlliance.org.