Fellow Steemians,
Google just released a free online tool that you can use for analyzing your rooftop's solar power potential! PROJECT SUNROOF (created by engineer Carl Elkin) uses Google's massive satellite database to map out the shade and sunlight that your rooftop receives throughout the year. They do this with pretty surprising accuracy, showing which buildings are too shaded vs. those that are well positioned for solar panels. Additionally, you can learn more about the cost-benefit of implementing solar power on your property.
Over the last few years the cost of solar equipment has dropped significantly. State grants are also ramping up, providing discounts for those who are interested in diversifying their energy portfolio. This diversification alleviates a growing burden on the national power grid while also reducing your monthly electricity bill. The goal of PROJECT SUNROOF is to make solar power more accessible to the masses.
“We want people to realize solar is absolutely part of the fabric of American life.”
Carl Elkin's team analyzed upwards of 60 million buildings in the United States for this project so far. There are still spots that haven't been mapped (a remaining est. 40 million buildings, yowza). Still, this project helps visualize the potential of solar in the United States. It's amazing to see how much wasted power just bounces off your roof every single day.
Here's a little bit more about the project and how it works...
Analysis
Each of the mapped communities come with a pretty neat analysis. Here's an example from Fresno, California:
Fresno, CA has a high number of large, flat roofs per square mile. There are over 30,000 roofs large enough to install at least a 20 kW system. If every large, viable roof were to deploy solar, the amount of solar electricity generated would make up 66% of the city’s estimated solar capacity. Flat roofs can be ideal installation locations for community solar arrays.
Community solar, a shared renewable electricity arrangement, lets multiple customers share power from a single local solar source. This approach can be ideal for people who want to go solar but are not able to do so for such common reasons as not owning their own homes, having a roof that's too pitched or shaded, or living in an apartment building or a townhome. A community solar project combines investments from several community members, providing power and financial benefits to local residents looking to switch to solar.
Thanks for sharing this, solar energy and any form of renewable energy definitely needs mass adoption to have a sustainable future not only for us but for upcoming generations.
Interesting to know Google has got it's presence here as well.
It makes no sense for them to focus only on corbering markets, when they make more by producing good stuff. So far, but we'll see once they really start getting in bed with the U.S. federal state.
It makes so much sense that Google would begin using their wealth of data for purposes like these! We absolutely need more visualizations for folks to imagine the potential. Thanks for the great comment @jznsamuel
Ive always been a believer in the power of solar! I'm surprised it hasn't been adopted much faster on a global scale. I still believe its just a matter of time until its every household has solar. Thanks for posting and Im following you :)
I mean the sun is basically a gigantic nuclear plant producing tons of energy that we mostly just ignore and let go to waste.
As technology improves, this will be pretty huge.
Completely agree, it's just sitting there. Once the efficiencies improve (they are every year) we'll see a big transition.
Likewise! It's just a matter of time and policy. It already makes financial sense so long as you live in the same location for more than a few years. Soon those few years could become a few months! (Hopefully)
This is very interesting. With solar cities, solar panel shingles and access to data like this. The transition for many home owners, to solar will grow exponentially. Thanks for letting me know about this project.
Thanks for your interest! Hopefully this kick-starts a new wave of solar adopters.
Have you heard of SolarCoin? It's apparently a way to invest in the growing use of and investments in solar power. It's meant to speed up the process.
Nice tool!
Thanks :D
This is soooo cool! I've been talking to my brother about doing solar panels on my mom's roof...it's unfortunate that the upfront cost is so steep.
It's going to change fast, unless goverment gets in the way and regulates it or tax it and starts subsidizing something like coal.
Wait a few years or so and prices should come down drastically for smaller solar solutions especially. ☺
Likewise, I used it to check my parent's place but alas, too many trees and the upfront cost is a bit steep!
That's an amazing initiative by Google...sustainable growth I think will be the biggest game changer in coming years...countries that will adopt all theses sustainable sources of energy will definitely be more stable financially.
I don't see nuclear going away anytime soon, but renewables/sun power will likely increase radically the coming years.
And as one representative of the latest big climate conference put it, it doesn't actually depend on government action "anymore" but rather it is now markets that are driving this global change.
Germany is generating so much renewable energy they almost need to give it away. And now those who invested in renewable energy are not able to pay it off.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/11/germany-takes-steps-to-roll-back-renewable-energy-revolution
Worse, it is affecting other countries: “Germany produces too much cheap energy, which countries like Austria then have to absorb. With the current prices for energy, investing in hydro or wind energy without state support is no longer competitive.”
This is a very exciting public resource. The data for this is also available to be downloaded. I like that Google is being very transparent here.
thanks for sharing such an informative post...without transparency they won't be able to develop this project on a large scale, I think that is a very good and calculated move from Google.
It is a great and cool project.
(I entered my home address (non-US) and, as expected, no result. LOL.)
LOL yeah hopefully this project can expand globally!
Heh yep as usual for us foreigners... we'll just have to wait a little longer I guess... as usual lol
Love this! Thank you so much for putting this info together, super exciting!
Glad you enjoyed it :)
This is the kind of project that Google is made for.
100%
That is a so great idea! I am surprized no one thought of it before! Let's now see whether this will be further used... :)
Here's hoping it will help! I imagine this would be a huge resource for solar companies as well. With it, they can determine what neighborhood to market to.
I agree. Then we will have to wait and see. I am in any case fully admirative of most tings Google does those days!
Awesome analysis. Upvoted
Thanks @viralsteem
Look like a fascinating project, its a shame its not working in my area yet :( [uk]
Yeah, it would be super interesting to browse the world with this as a filter. Maybe one day soon!
Looks like a nice project will check it out now! <3
Definitely try it out!
Hrmmm.... I wonder if they have anything like this for Canada.
I'm sure they'll expand the map northward :)
Awesome article
Thanks for sharing
Solar energy needs mass adoption
Cheers, thanks for the support :)
"It's amazing to see how much wasted power just bounces off your roof every single day." Let's harness it! Thank you for this contribution.
Yes! Let's not let it go to waste :)
Wow that's so cool. My grandparents had solar panals way back when and saved on heating The pool. Thanks for posting this hopefully it gets out !
Awesome, your grandparents are setting the bar!
We need SteemSolar. Coming soon to a roof near you. ;)
I reeeally dig that idea ;)
"SteemSolar : Get Green with Steem"
This post received a 36% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @voronoi! For more information, click here!
Its a great step better we can depend on solar power then on fuel as it will not run off some day. I feel that government should at least take an initiative to solar power every house.
@voronoi thanks for sharing about renewable energy .Upvoted and followed
you can check my article about wonders of materials thanks
https://steemit.com/technology/@diverse-thinker/a-house-in-a-day-wonders-of-materials
Here in Belgium, the governement subsidized installation of rooftop solar panels in order to speed up adoption. Seems like a good idea at first, until some smart dudes figured out that the subsidies where worth more then the actual solar power. So companies who could pay the upfront costs of massive installations started doing that, which caused a massive hole in the governement budget, so they decided to tax everybody who uses electricty. The keyword here is 'everybody', as in, also the people who don't have solar panels (which includes me :( ) . So that SUCKED. Just ranting.
Also check out: https://solarcoin.org -> coins for every kWh of solar energy generated.
i have heart about some time ago. It is great initiative. Since I live in Cameroon, where the electricity is sometimes rather sold out of the country then to serve the own people I was thinking about the solution. Solar industry is booming so it is quite obvious where my thoughts are leading. The idea is to create a solar panels of size of aluminium sheet (3x1m or 2x1m) to replace the aluminium roofs on houses in Africa. If you are interested more about our conservation activities in Cameroon find it here. Thank you in advance for your votes, resteems, promotion or donation. All steems gained on Steemit will be use to save the forest.