About SolarNetwork Foundation

SNF started at a playground in Auckland, New Zealand.

Back in 2008, two dads watched their girls play, started chatting, and found they had some things in common. Both were U.S. expats living in New Zealand and both had a strong interest in using technology for environmental purposes. The idea of an open, public infrastructure that used the internet to bridge renewable energy data streams, regardless of the hardware being used to produce the energy, started to swirl in their minds.

The two gathered a couple of solar panels, charge controllers, deep-cycle batteries, miniature PCs, and climbed their roofs to install the gear. Over the next weeks and months they wrote the code that would become the SolarNetwork platform. Today SolarNetwork is being used by schools, corporations, governments, solar integrators, and developers in numerous apps that display and control dynamic energy flows in novel ways. SolarNetwork and its founders have been recognized by awards and invitations to conferences and brainstorming sessions across the world: from the Asian Development Bank to the White House.

About the name

The name SolarNetwork was derived from the facts that the project started by tracking the energy produced by solar panels and collected the data over the internet. However the goal of the project has always been broader in scope by considering entire energy environments comprised of all forms of energy, weather, market prices, electric cars, and more.

We like to think of solar in the sense that the energy produced by the sun either provides or directly influences all aspects of an energy enrvironment. Additionally, network can be thought of as both the physical network provided by the internet as well as the social aspect of people sharing a common interest in energy and the environment.

Our mission

SolarNetwork Foundation was established in 2017 to serve as a curator and promoter of the open codebase and data-driven process that comprise the SolarNetwork platform. The Foundation’s work is guided by our belief in:

  1. open source computing
  2. data-driven methodology
  3. open access to data

We celebrate the innovations emerging from the community of developers, enthusiasts, and business leaders who share these values.

Our mission is to protect and preserve the environment by supporting energy education, and to use technology to engage people for the purposes of energy awareness, conservation, and the uptake of renewable energy sources.

Our people

John Gorman

John Gorman

Strategic Director

John Gorman is an solar energy consultant with a masters degree from the University of Auckland school of Electrical and Computer Engineering focused on solar power data management. As a New Yorker with a background of being involved in software startups, John took an interest in how open-source software could assist non-profit organisations. He is continually inspired by the potential of information and renewable energy to improve our experience of the natural world.

John lives in Auckland with his partner, two children, and small curly-haired dog.

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Matt Magoffin

Matt Magoffin

Technical Director

Matt Magoffin’s work with SolarNetwork Foundation is an expression of his deeply-held commitment to environmental issues, and his desire to provide useful, flexible, open-access tools to address social and ecological problems. He retains a sense of delight at the possibilities for play and experimentation which technology offers after more than twenty years experience architecting and developing enterprise-level applications, both in New Zealand and in the United States.

Matt lives in Wellington with his partner, two children, and large shaggy dog.

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