San Francisco Solar Map Lets You Spy on Your Neighbor
by Kristin Underwood, Sacramento, CA 
on 08.20.08
Image source: SF Solar Map
This cool, interactive solar map put out by the San Francisco Department of the Environment lets you identify exactly where and how many solar panels are on houses in San Fran. Even better than that, the site has a search tool where you can enter your address and it will identify how much roof surface your house has, the potential size of a pv system and an estimated cost to max out your roof with solar.
What a great selling tool for people interested in purchasing PV, but are unsure whether they have the right roof for solar. Neighbors can see who in their area has solar, take a peek at their system, and decide whether they think it was a clean install, compare with other installs and determine whether its even going to be visible from the street.
Jared Blumenfeld, Director of the SF Department of the Environment, says that they are aiming to put solar on 10,000 rooftops by 2010. To help encourage people on the fence, the site also has testimonials by area residents with installed solar systems, dispelling myths like San Francisco is too foggy for solar and whether its noisy or a bother to have solar.
The map is built around a user-friendly Google-map. "Dots" identify the different buildings with solar, with a color-coding system to denote residential, non-profit, school/library, etc. Several of the "dots" also have a blue outline, which means they include a case-study on the location. What else can the site do? Well, it has a list of PV installers in the area, resources, incentives to help pay for the system and even solar training courses for folks interested in learning more and even working in the field. We hear San Diego has a similar map in the works...
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Yes, very nice.
I've just emailed the London Mayor (Boris J) to see if we can have one too! We already have all the data collected (power and street address) for existing installs by Ofgem, and it's probably public data too.
Maybe someone can even do a 'mash-up' with what's already available?
Rgds
Damon
there's also a similar Boulder solar map, though it doesn't have as many features as the SF solar map.
or a great way to find out where to steal one from. I work in Hackney, London and solar panels have been stolen from education centres before. This could encourage further stealing.
If i had a solar panel I wouldnt want to have it listed for everyone to see
i too live in hackney and it comes as no surprise to hear of the thefts of solar panels. they will steal anything around here