Deciding how much you can save on projects if you opt for solar energy is getting easier and easier. Primarily aimed at homeowners and single-family residential developers, but also useful for commercial properties, a team of Google engineers launched a new tool that can help the doubtful better understand if they will be able to bring big savings if they convert to solar energy.
Titled Project Sunroof, the tool offers high-resolution aerial maps, like the one used in Google Earth, to estimate the total sunlight a rooftop receives throughout the year, CityLab reports.
Users can then learn how much they can expect to save with solar panels, and even evaluate different financing plans.
One such application already on the market is the MIT-born MapDwell, which launched two years ago. Architizer reports that MapDwell has announced the expansion of the service into New York City’s Five Boroughs.
“This tremendous project covers over one million buildings and reveals enough high-yield photovoltaic potential to deliver over five million megawatt-hours of energy per year,” Architizer reports.
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