When John Berger stepped down as CEO of Sunnova in March of 2025, he switched gears from running a residential solar installation company to launching Onvis, a solar service provider. Onvis soon merged with Norwegian firm, Otovo, and Berger was named CEO. Recently Otovo acquired U.S.-based Solar Service Professionals, a residential solar operations and maintenance provider.
Otovo specializes in delivering AI-based maintenance service to European customers with solar panels and battery backup. The acquisition of California-based solar maintenance firm, Solar Service Professionals (SSP), moves Otovo into the largest residential solar market in the U.S.
Since 2017 SSP has built an installed customer base of 38,000 customers who will be integrated into Otovo’s service business. SSP is based in Sherman Oaks, just outside of Los Angeles, California, and focuses its service on the southern part of the state. Once the acquisition is complete, Berger told pv magazine USA that Otovo will expand service throughout the rest of the state. SSP currently has eight employees and Berger said Otovo “will be adding technicians and expect to expand greatly over the course of the next few months.”
Otovo operates on a subscription basis, so the first order of business will be to convert those customers to the new model.
“SSP’s established operations in California provide Otovo with an immediate footprint in the country’s largest solar market,” Berger said in a statement. While California is number one in installed residential solar in the U.S., Otovo potentially will expand into other markets, Berger said.
Otovo provides what it calls a “power partner model” that brings together retail electricity, operations and maintenance, and grid trading through a cloud-connected virtual power plant. It uses a proprietary AI-based Endurance platform to triage issues with residential solar and storage and then route a maintenance crew in real time.
In a recent interview on Sean White’s Solar and Energy Storage podcast, John Berger noted that Sunnova was focused on leasing, installation and service, whereas Onovo is just service. “When you look at the unhappiness with residential solar, a lot of it comes down to service,” Berger said, adding that “service is the biggest pain point in the U.S. market.”
Otovo is listed on the Euronext Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker OTOVO.
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