Solar potential assessment - how to

Solarmapper developed this tool to help homeowners and businesses quickly assess the solar potential of any given location. With a friendly graphic interface solar site assessment takes just a few clicks. Homeowners can calculate their solar potential and opt for making enquiries to local businesses. Solar companies can check the potential of any customer’s enquiry within seconds and decide whether to respond.

When a registered user creates a project and saves it the record is stored in Solarmapper database available for further use. All saved projects are available after login.

Important note:

The calculated polygon area should be used only as a reference for preliminary evaluation purposes. It is not a real measurement and should not be used as such in the project development stages!

 

Solar potential by address:

1. Enter address in the search box and click "search".

2. Check featured graph in the pop-up window.

3. Learn more about solar potential of your point of interest.

 

Step by step solar site assessment:

 

1. Search your point of interest by address or navigate directly on the map;

2. Draw a polygon over the targeted area;

3. Select tilt angle, orientation, type of PV technology and effective area usage (mouse over hint);

4. Click PV and get

  • monthly electricity production of your would-be PV installation with annual summary.
  • annual irradiation deficit due to shadowing form distant obstacles.
  • solar irradiation per square meter.
  • estimates of average monthly and daily profiles.
  • Example of panel layout.

 

Create your own PV project 


1. Login or register. Zoom in to the location of interest;

2. After zooming in to your point of interest click "new project button" - (ICON). "project created" message will appear. Click "OK" to continue;

3. Follow steps 2, 3 from Step by step solar site assessment. Click "save" button - (ICON). You can view your project in the "My projects" list.

 

Rename your project

1. Log in. Choose My projects link from the menu above the tabs;

2. Click on the pencil (ICON) beside the project name of the project you want to rename;

3. Enter a new name. Click OK.

 

Edit your existing project


1. Log in. Choose My projects link from the menu above the tabs;

2. Choose the project you want to edit. Click View/Edit link;

3. You can modify your project and save the changes by clicking the "Save button" form the vertical toolbar on Solar potential/Map page.

 

Drawing polygons accurately

/FAQ/Images/Fam_house02.png

When drawing the polygon, try to place nodes within the perimeter of the selected roof section (in this example we have achieved high level of consistency with the real PV array).

 

With the integration of POLYSUN online the whole process of project preliminary design takes just minutes without leaving Solarmapper. Input data for solar simulation with POLYSUN Online is automatically transferred upon selecting "create offer with POLYSUN", available for every record in the enquiry list page.

Data: location, usable area, estimated peak power, tilt and azimuth angle, sum of annual electricity production, daily and monthly charts, outline of horizon with sun path for winter and summer solstice. (Source: PVGIS (c) European Communities, 2001-2010)