Government Technology - January 2009 - (Page 50)

green Synopsis: The San Francisco Solar Map allows home and business owners to determine the solar power capacity of their building. j j S TAT E | L O C A L | F E D E R A L Rays the B Y E L A I N E R U N D L E | S TA F F W R I T E R Solar maps let citizens investigate their home’s solar potential and learn about local installations. Agency: San Francisco Department of the Environment. Technology: GIS. Contact: Johanna Partin, renewable energy program manager, Department of the Environment, johanna.partin@ sfgov.org. Roof $$ $$$ $ C JAN_09 ities wanting to remove the guesswork from solar power installations are turning to friendlier technology for citizens. Since typing a street address into a Web site is all it takes to determine how much solar power can be obtained from a rooftop installation, who wouldn’t take a look? An exemplar is the San Francisco Solar Map that lets residents view buildings that are equipped with solar power. Users also can type their address into http://sf.solarmap. org to get an analysis of how much solar power their roof could harness. “We wanted something that would help people, that would break down some myths about installing solar in San Francisco, and then offer a tool to people who were interested in solar but didn’t really know how to take the first step,” said Johanna Partin, renewable energy program manager of the San Francisco Department of the Environment. San Francisco has set a lofty goal: 10,000 roofs equipped with solar power by 2012. As of press time, 871 of the city’s roofs had solar panels installed. The Solar Map’s goal is to offer residents a simple tool to learn about solar installation. The department envisioned a platform similar to Google Earth, so residents could zoom into the view of their building, according to Partin. In spring 2007, San Francisco presented the idea to CH2M HILL — an engineering, consulting and construction company. “Mayor [Gavin] Newsom was very interested in promoting solar, and they said, ‘Can we quickly come up with a solution that allowed business owners and residents of San Francisco to make an assessment of the solar potential of their building?’” said Dave Hermann, client solutions director of CH2M HILL. “And that was really the genesis of the idea of the Solar Map.” Solar Solutions The Solar Map combines aerial photography, GIS software and data supplied by the client. “It’s a combination of parcel data … and the tax assessor’s database, which then gets the size of each building and the number of floors which we used to come up with an algorithm that estimates the photovoltaic potential for a rooftop,” said Ryan Miller, lead technologist for solar mapping initiatives for CH2M HILL. When someone types a street address into the Web site, the technology identifies objects on the roof that cast shadows, such as HVAC 40 http://sf.solarmap.org http://sf.solarmap.org http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - January 2009

Government Technology - January 2009 Contents Point of View On the Scene Big Picture Four Questions for... Stemming the Retirement Tide Getting the Picture Fact of Matter Money Trail Rays the Roof Trick or Tweet? The Modern Way to Vote Products signal:noise

Government Technology - January 2009

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