Satellite imagery company GeoEye is joining forces with Geostellar to map every commercial and domestic rooftop in the US for solar power potential.
The collaboration will see GeoEye will supply Earth imagery, digital surface models and other mapping data to Geostellar, which will use its analytical systems to assess a property’s roof slope, amount of shading and weather patterns.
This data will be combined with local utility rates and incentives to determine how quickly a property owner can recoup the costs of installing a photovoltaic system.
Solar installers and utilities could use the data to target potential customers, while clean energy developers would be able to determine the economic viability of a particular site.
Geostellar has already made maps of Washington DC, Boston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New Jersey, which the cities have made publically available.
The potential of such solar rooftop systems is demonstrated by the latest announcement from Cogenra Solar, which says it is installed the largest rooftop system yet in the US at Kendall-Jackson’s Kittyhawk winery in California.
The system will generate some 1.4 million gallons of hot water and 48,000 kWh of electricity annually, saving the winery an estimated $30,000 in energy costs every year.
For further information:
www.geoeye.com/
geostellar.com/
www.cogenra.com/
Related stories:
IKEA unpacks more solar panels and electric vehicle charging points (21-Feb)
Google and Warren Buffett make more solar investments (21-Dec 2011)
US solar installations break the 1 GW barrier for first time (16-Dec 2011)
Article source: http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/i/5075/
