The SunSpec Alliance is a trade alliance of developers, manufacturers, researchers, and service providers, and they developed these standards in conjunction with XBRL US as part of the US Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative. The Orange Button program is intended to lead to better data aggregation and sharing, which should help facilitate more efficient and cost-effective financing of distributed energy products.

“Standardizing data collection is a critical means to reduce the soft costs of solar financing,” said Tom Tansy, Chairman of SunSpec Alliance. “All solar energy stakeholders owe it to themselves and their businesses to review the standards and give us feedback. Every participant has a chance to influence the final standards that will be the industry norm in solar financing.”

Public companies in the solar industry, such as electric utilities, investors, and solar developers, already use XBRL to format their financial information. This makes XBRL “the ideal standard for Orange Button given the need for consistent, comparable financial information in solar financing,” said Campbell Pryde, President and CEO of XBRL US. XBRL US has worked closely with SunSpec to develop Orange Button and promote its success. XBRL US has led the effort to build the financial portion of the Orange Button standards, leveraging their experience with and knowledge of the US GAAP taxonomy.

Orange Button standards represent the life cycle phases of solar financing, including feasibility, design, construction, finance, and operations. Reviewers will have access to the digital dictionary of data fields and definitions, and they can make comments through Yeti, which was contributed to the Orange Button program by CoreFiling.

The 30-day public review of the Orange Button Taxonomy will run through October 13, 2017. All interested parties are encouraged to leave feedback.

Sources

SunSpec Alliance and XBRL US Announce Public Review of Orange Button Solar Data Standards (xbrl.us)
Orange Button Taxonomy Review (xbrl.us)