Solar capacity is growing fast…Hidden performance risk is growing faster.
Forge, from SkinnyCowboy.ai, is an applied AI stack that turns your site data into operator-owned performance audits, repower plans, and end-of-life economics. Instead of guessing where downtime and hidden bills are coming from, Forge shows you – in MWh, dollars, and risk.
We started at real sites, not in slideware. Forge was shaped in the field and proven at SingingWater Vineyards, where we reconciled installer data, utility bills, and on-site constraints to build a clear performance and ROI story – even without direct LAN access to the gateways. That work became the first Forge Solar Performance Audit.
Forge gives operators a single lifecycle view of each asset: today's performance gaps and avoided loss, repair vs repower vs decommissioning scenarios, and the financial impact of each decision. On top of Forge, our OpenRoper assistant will bring that intelligence into the field – but the engine underneath is Forge.
Most tools sell dashboards. Forge sells decisions you can defend to your CFO.
Built for operators who want clear performance audits, quantified avoided loss, and honest lifecycle economics – not another black-box SaaS dependency.
Forge by SkinnyCowboy.ai — Applied AI for Renewable Operations.
What is Forge?
The operator-owned AI stack for solar performance and lifecycle decisions.
Forge is SkinnyCowboy.ai's applied AI stack for renewable operations. It ingests site data from gateways, SCADA, and utility bills, then turns it into performance audits, repower plans, and end-of-life economics that operators can defend to their CFOs.
Pillar 1
Forge Solar Performance Audit
Turns raw production and billing data into a clear performance baseline, avoided loss, and ROI story for each site. SingingWater Vineyards is the first production example of this audit in the wild.
- • Normalize installer / SCADA / utility data into one truth.
- • Quantify underperformance in MWh and dollars.
- • Build a defensible story you can take to owners and lenders.
Pillar 2
Repower & Decommissioning Engine
Models repair vs repower vs decommissioning for each asset, including real end-of-life obligations that are often missing from financial models.
- • Scenario plans: run, repair, repower, or remove.
- • NPV / IRR impact for each decision.
- • Hooks to partners for physical execution when you're ready.
Pillar 3
Edge & Operator-Owned AI (OpenRoper)
Forge runs on operator infrastructure and feeds OpenRoper, the assistant interface for field techs and operations teams.
- • Local inference and data ownership on your hardware.
- • Field-first UX for fault clarity and MTTR reduction.
- • Prevention Credits logic to track avoided downtime value.
Today, most work starts with a Forge Solar Performance Audit on a single site. From there, we expand into portfolio-wide audits, repower planning, and end-of-life modeling — all while keeping data and AI under the operator's control.