Can AI fix solar’s service problem? John Berger is betting on it

The Sunnova founder’s new venture targets the weakest link in residential solar — long-term service — with an AI-powered platform that lowers soft costs, automates O&M, and restores customer trust.

If your air conditioner needs repair, a technician can usually be at your house within a day. If your solar system needs a fix, you might be waiting for weeks or months.

That disconnect — the long-neglected “service gap” in residential solar — is what Sunnova founder John Berger is now trying to fix with his newest company, Otovo USA. The startup, launched this summer in Texas, is designed around a much-needed credo: service first.

“We’ve had a complete focus on the initial construction of solar systems and batteries, with very little thought about what happens over the next 20 to 30 years with that equipment,” Berger says. “We’ve put millions of systems out there. Who’s taking care of them? Who’s delivering the service that was promised?”

He hopes to answer those questions with Otovo USA, which raised $4 million in seed funding. The idea is to combine retail electricity, service and maintenance, and grid trading into one AI-driven membership platform.

We wrote about the launch last month, and followed back up for a longer chat with Berger about how exactly Otovo USA is set up and how your installation business (and customers) can benefit from its services.

Why service broke — and how Otovo can fix it

For years, residential solar companies have treated service as an afterthought — a burdensome expense that eats into installation margins. That’s partly because the industry is structurally built around sales and financing, not long-term maintenance.

“The initial construction of anything is a materially different business than the service business,” Berger says. “We’ve really struggled with that as an industry — not just residential solar, but residential generators, too. We don’t have service-level agreements like HVAC or other trades do. And that has real implications.”

Berger didn’t let himself off the hook on that point either. The service division was a core piece of Sunnova’s model, alongside financing and construction, with more than 500 trucks ready to roll across the continent. But pricing for service never matched its value — particularly when the “solar coaster” eventually drove the forecast for new business off the rails.

“We need to do better as an industry — and I need to do better,” he says.

Otovo’s approach separates installation from service by design. Contractors and EPCs can offload their service obligations to Otovo while keeping their pipeline of new installations intact.

Endurance AI and the soft-cost problem

Underpinning Otovo’s entire model is Endurance AI, the company’s proprietary software platform. It’s designed to automate customer management, field diagnostics, and even technical training — all major contributors to soft costs in residential solar.

“We’ve used the big AI models to build our own software stack,” Berger explains. “At Sunnova, we were a Salesforce company in a big way. We spent many tens of millions on a CRM. At Otovo, we’ve already built our own CRM. We’re going to spend almost nothing now.”

That shift means fewer third-party software expenses, faster ticket resolution, and tighter coordination between field crews and customers. “A technician can point their phone at an inverter error code, and our AI tells them what to do,” he says. “That’s a lot of cost just falling out of the system, while empowering the people we do have.”

The system continuously learns from field data, so less-experienced technicians can perform at a higher level. “We take what experienced technicians do, push it through our platform, and give others that training without formal sessions — which are expensive,” Berger adds.

The ultimate goal: to eliminate unnecessary friction. “A lot of people don’t want to get on the phone and argue,” Berger says. “They just want it fixed.”

For the homeowner: A membership model for home energy

Better service is a noble pursuit, but it’s also a major market opportunity. There are already thousands of existing solar and storage systems that need better ongoing support. Meanwhile, rates continue to climb.

“Consumers care more about that lost power now than ever,” Berger says. “If you lose 10 to 20% of production, it matters more in dollars and cents.”

Otovo’s offering is modeled after a typical good-better-best subscription. Homeowners can sign up for one of three tiers — $9, $29, or $49 a month — each defining how fast the company will respond to a maintenance issue.

“You sign up for a subscription: $9 if you want us there within 48 hours, $29 for 24 hours, $49 for 12 hours,” Berger says. “After a hurricane or outage, we prioritize accordingly — 49s first, 29s second, 9s last. You choose which one you want. And anything that goes wrong, we’ll monitor. We’ll roll a truck, get your approval before we do so, and if you’re a member, you get 10% off that repair bill.”

Members can also opt into retail power at better rates, often integrated with virtual power plant (VPP) participation.

AI in action: no calls, no waiting

Berger describes a typical scenario that shows how Endurance AI could redefine solar service:

“Our system triggers an alarm that something’s gone wrong with an inverter. Your production is underperforming. We schedule the repair, send you different times, you choose, we show up, we fix it, and send you exactly what we did. The bill’s automatically paid. You talk to us precisely zero times.”

That level of automation is how Otovo can offer predictable monthly pricing and fast response times, something few service companies can afford to guarantee.

The contractor connection

Otovo’s platform could also relieve a major pain point for installers: post-installation liability. For many contractors, maintaining systems over decades has been a drag on profitability. Otovo’s model allows them to hand off that responsibility, while also being able to keep that customer for repowering jobs or any new installation work.

“There’s definitely an opportunity right after installation for us to take over service from installers,” Berger says. “As an industry, we’ve been so fixated on the install and guessing at what service will cost. We miss it, underprice it, and then don’t provide the service.”

For installers, Otovo’s model could effectively become a customer-retention tool, improving satisfaction scores and brand reputation without adding overhead. “We want to focus on those 25 years,” Berger says. “That’s our role.”

Integrating retail power and grid services

At the moment, the company is exclusively focused on existing installations, many from former Sunnova dealers. But they have “a number of different ways” for acquiring customers, such as selling retail power in consumer choice markets, and selling excess power into the wholesale market or as a VPP, which can all be bundled into its service model. This gives customers more value and provides another revenue stream for Otovo that helps the economics work.

“In deregulated markets, we can offer materially lower retail rates than any other provider,” Berger says. “There are real consumer benefits to having a virtual power plant and the ability to choose your power provider.”

The concept connects neatly with broader grid goals, too. Keeping distributed assets online and responsive improves local grid stability, which is especially critical in regions like Texas with frequent outages. “Whether it’s a big plant or a little power plant, if it’s up and running and optimal, you make the most revenue,” Berger says. “Everyone benefits — the consumer, the system, and the grid.”

Texas is an ideal proving ground: home to millions of distributed energy systems, a deregulated retail market, and frequent weather-driven reliability issues. We’ve seen other residential companies with wholesale / grid service deals go big in Texas too.

But Berger hopes to see more opportunities emerge across the country: “The truth is, the United States is woefully behind the developed world in power regulation,” he says. “Outside of Houston and Dallas, we need to modernize. In Europe, every country has consumer choice.”

Otovo’s partnership with Otovo Europe gives it a head start in scaling. The European brand already operates in 13 countries and has helped thousands of homeowners adopt solar, providing the operational experience needed for a cross-market platform.

Why Berger’s back

Given the state of the market — rising interest rates, regulatory uncertainty, and shrinking installer margins — I had to joke about his timing.

“I feel like you’re questioning my sanity, Chris,” he laughs. “So did my wife.”

But as a seasoned conductor on the solar coaster, he’s clearly taking lessons learned into this venture and applying a new set of tools.

“Residential solar is at an inflection point — and AI is going to save it.”