Buzz Solutions wins $100,000 HearstLab grant to expand visual intelligence for utility-scale solar inspections. Equity-free funding will advance PowerAI's solar capabilities and reinforce Buzz Solutions' role as a trusted inspection platform for energy infrastructure Buzz Solutions is exactly the kind of company Energy News hoped to spotlight through the AI Pitch & Showcase: a strong team using AI to solve a real operational challenge in a large and growing market." - Lisa Burton, Vice President of HearstLab PALO ALTO, CA, UNITED STATES, June 11, 2026 / EINPresswire.com / - Buzz Solutions, an AI software company that enables a smart, stable, and resilient energy infrastructure, today announced it has been selected as the winner of HearstLab's 2026 AI Pitch & Showcase, earning $100,000 in equity-free grant funding to expand the company's visual intelligence capabilities for utility-scale solar inspections. The pitch competition, held during NY TECH WEEK by a16z, brought together five AI companies from HearstLab's portfolio to present 90-day plans for new AI features or enhancements designed to address customer needs, strengthen competitive differentiation and unlock new growth opportunities. Buzz Solutions was selected as the winner for its plan to expand its asset analytics and Visual AI platform from grid transmission and distribution infrastructure into utility-scale solar. The grant funding will support the continued development of Buzz Solutions' solar inspection capabilities within PowerAI, the company's AI-powered platform for managing, analyzing and reporting visual inspection data across critical energy infrastructure. The expanded solar capabilities help utilities and operators analyze RGB and thermal imagery, detect anomalies which degrade performance and prioritize maintenance across large-scale solar assets. "Winning this grant is an honor and a meaningful validation of our team's work to help utilities modernize inspections with practical, field-ready technology," said Kaitlyn Albertoli, CEO and Co-Founder of Buzz Solutions. "We are grateful to the HearstLab team for the opportunity to participate and the judges for recognizing the potential to extend PowerAI into one of the fastest-growing areas of energy infrastructure." As renewable generation becomes a more central part of grid operations, utilities are facing new asset management challenges. Utility-scale solar sites can span hundreds of acres and include millions of panels, requiring vast volumes of inspection imagery that are difficult to review manually. Buzz Solutions' expanded solar capabilities are designed to help teams identify thermal anomalies across PV panels, connectors, combiner boxes and inverters and visual issues such as cracked panels, damaged cells, soiling and vegetation encroachment. By mapping inspection insights into GIS, asset management and maintenance systems, PowerAI helps utilities move from manual image review to proactive, data-driven maintenance. The platform supports geospatial asset mapping, automated analysis of inspection imagery and actionable reporting, enabling teams to identify issues faster, prioritize repairs and improve asset performance. "Buzz Solutions is exactly the kind of company we hoped to spotlight through the AI Pitch & Showcase: a strong team using AI to solve a real operational challenge in a large and growing market," said Lisa Burton, Vice President of HearstLab. "Their plan to extend PowerAI into utility-scale solar is practical, commercially relevant and deeply aligned with where critical infrastructure is headed. We're excited to support Kaitlyn, Vikhyat and the Buzz team as they bring these capabilities to more utilities and energy operators." Vikhyat Chaudhry, CTO and Co-Founder of Buzz Solutions adds, "PowerAI helps reduce complexity by mapping assets to GIS, automating identification of anomalies and integrating results into the systems utilities already use." PowerAI is purpose-built for utility workflows, helping teams centralize inspection data, improve human-in-the-loop review and integrate insights with existing GIS, asset management and work order systems. By extending these capabilities to solar assets, Buzz Solutions is giving utilities a common way to manage inspection data across critical infrastructure types, improving operational efficiency and consistency. About Buzz Solutions Buzz Solutions safeguards the world's energy infrastructure with an AI-powered predictive analytics platform for visual infrastructure inspections. The company enables field teams to prioritize and perform maintenance in a timely manner, reducing the likelihood of wildfires, forced shutdowns, and power outages resulting from failed grid infrastructure. Buzz also enables utilities to monitor substation infrastructure for security, safety, and high-energy events. Buzz works with several large utilities across North America, including the New York Power Authority and Southern California Edison. The company is backed by GoPoint Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, and MaC Venture Capital. Buzz was established and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. For more information, visit www.buzzsolutions.co or follow Buzz Solutions on LinkedIn. Peter Moran Indicate Media +1 347-880-2895 email Energy News here Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. 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Buzz Solutions has expanded its PowerAI platform to support utility-scale solar inspections, addressing the growing challenge of managing vast installations with millions of panels. The AI software analyses drone-collected RGB and thermal imagery to detect defects across photovoltaic panels, connectors, combiner boxes and inverters. The platform automates visual analysis of large inspection datasets, identifying thermal anomalies and equipment issues such as cracked panels, soiling and vegetation encroachment. Results integrate directly into GIS and asset management systems, enabling utilities to prioritise maintenance and improve asset performance. The Palo Alto-based company's expansion builds on its existing visual AI platform used across transmission, distribution and substation infrastructure. Early deployments have demonstrated reduced manual review times and accelerated inspection timelines across large-scale infrastructure programmes.