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| Solar PV online application  In a significant development for the UK solar PV industry, Hestia unveiled a new solar PV online application. The SolarProspector is a technologically advanced online tool for assessing the viability of installing solar PV on a roof - allowing both homeowners and professionals to visualise their installation and to assess the financial viability of installing solar panels on a roof. SolarProspector gives everyone the chance to see what their roof could be worth in solar earnings. The user-friendly design of SolarProspector represents a significant departure from existing market offers - giving all UK property owners the chance to assess earnings and savings from solar installations without having to commit to expensive surveys. Commercial, agricultural and residential properties can all be accurately surveyed individually for solar PV suitability, free of charge. Traditional solar PV assessment tools are either simplistic and deliver inaccurate results or require specialised knowledge to operate. SolarProspector is easy to use and incorporates features which significantly enhance accuracy. Single property owners can use the tool to visualise how the solar panels will look on their roof. Aerial imagery and address information identify a specific property; accurately scaled individual solar panels can then be overlaid onto the roof and arranged to fit, avoiding obstructions (such as chimneys); a full report detailing system size, electricity generation, earnings from the Feed-In Tariff and savings on fuel costs can then be produced. For larger projects and on a contract basis, Hestia can quickly and accurately assess the potential for installing solar PV on multiple properties - ideal for local authorities, facilities managers, estate agencies, large property portfolio owners and solar PV installers. Working from a customer-supplied property address list Hestia's expert Solar Verifiers will use SolarProspector to evaluate each property for solar PV suitability. This will enable Hestia to produce a list of viable roofs and prepare a comprehensive report detailing the potential system size in kWp, location of obstructions/significant overshading, estimated electricity yield, earnings from the Feed-In Tariff, potential electricity and carbon savings, and a web link to an aerial image of each property. The system has been successfully piloted on a local authority contract to examine 60,000 roofs for suitability. Hestia's SolarProspector uses an embedded Google Map to allow users to identify their properties and visualise how many solar panels can be installed on their roof. Unlike other online tools based on the Google Maps API, SolarProspector uses complex trigonometry to solve the angle at which an aerial image was taken. SolarProspector overlays accurately scaled solar panels onto the map based on the pitch of roof as chosen by the user, a perspective correction factor to take into account the angle at which the aerial imagery was taken, and the dimensions of Hestia supplied solar panels. The system performance and financial assessment are calculated using the UK Government approved Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) along with Feed-In Tariff rates published by Ofgem. "I am very proud of our development team. SolarProspector gives everyone the chance to see what their roof could be worth in solar earnings. We are delighted to be able to make this simple online tool available for free", said Keith Bennett, Executive Chairman, Hestia. Investing in ways of producing renewable energy is a particularly attractive option for property owners because the prices for generating electricity under the UK Feed-In Tariff (FIT) Scheme are effectively guaranteed by the Government for 25 years and the technology involved is well-proven and reliable. Under the scheme solar electricity production is particularly well rewarded but there have been limited affordable options for assessing the potential for solar installations on individual roofs. The launch of SolarProspector makes the evaluation of financial returns and carbon savings from a single solar system achievable for all property owners. write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Construction News :: home page |