Using the same high-resolution aerial imagery that powers its online maps, Google on Monday launched a new tool that lets Bay Area homeowners calculate the costs and benefits of installing rooftop solar panels.
Type your address in Google’s new Project Sunroof website, and it will show your roof in sunny bright yellow, darker purple shade, or something in between. The analysis shows hours of usable sunlight per year based on a day-to-day analysis of neighborhood weather patterns. It also shows the estimated square footage available for solar panels based on a 3-D modeling of a home’s roof and nearby trees using imagery collected by aircraft for Google Earth. And then it considers local electricity rates and solar incentives to compute an estimate for net savings with a 20-year lease.
The tool is available now for the most of the Bay Area, Fresno and greater Boston, but could later become available in other states and countries.
The design was led by “proud solar geek” Carl Elkin, who works in Google’s office in Cambridge, Mass.
Elkin was a search engineer who began working on the tool as part of the company’s “20 percent project” where employees are encouraged to spend a portion of their work time on projects that personally inspire them. He’s now working full-time on Project Sunroof.
“I learned that many people are in favor of going solar themselves personally but they wrongly believe it’s very expensive,” Elkin said in an interview Monday. “I knew in principle that solar is very cheap and has been for some time, but when you see the sheer scale of how well it can work, it really is quite amazing. One begins to wonder, ‘What’s holding people back?’ We believe it’s because people don’t realize how cheap it is.”
Unsurprisingly, a quick glance at greater Boston rooftops shows a lot more shade compared to Bay Area neighborhoods, both because of New England’s typical weather patterns and denser tree canopies. But for many homes, the estimated savings calculated through the tool ends up the same or better in Boston because of local government incentives that reward homeowners for installing solar panels.
In the Bay Area, the tool today directs homeowners to five solar companies that can be hired to install panels: San Jose-based SunPower, Belmont-based SunEdison, Milpitas-based nonprofit SunWork Renewable Energy Projects, as well as Texas-based NRG Energy’s Home Solar program and Utah-based Vivint Solar.
Google will eventually get a commission for each referral, but not during the pilot stage.
Above: Screenshot of Google’s new Project Sunroof tool, as used for the sun-drenched roof of the San Jose Mercury News in downtown San Jose.
