Google to tell if a building or home should convert to solar energy

In sunny South-Africa and with the darkness of #load shedding looming over our heads it is for some a consideration to invest in hybrid renewable systems that can make use of the sun to become less dependent on Eskom and to also see a return of investment.

But what if your house or building is positioned in such a way that installing solar panels on the roof do not promise maximum exposure to sunlight?  Do you know where the best possible place on the roof is to position the solar panels?

Google has a new tool that is in pilot phase that can determine if your house or office building should convert to solar power. It is called “Project Sunroof” and it wants to map the amount of sunlight a rooftop receives to help decide if it makes financial sense to go solar. By typing the home’s address into Google earth, users can find out how much space there is for solar panels on the roof, how many hours of rooftop sunlight it would get in a year and how much power bills could be cut by. An image of the home will appear with the roof in colour ranging from yellow to purple, indicating how much sunlight hits the surface.

So far the American cities San Francisco, Fresno and Boston are the only searchable ones but hopefully South Africans will be able to use this tool soon.