focus solar launches new solar siting tool

»How profitable is the installation and operation of solar systems of all sizes?« Whether it's residential, commercial or utility-scale solar, reliable information is key to ensuring profitability. focus solar has developed a unique siting and reporting tool that makes this information highly desirable to the institutional investor as well as to the solar homeowner.

Website visitors at focussolar.de enter their address, view the prospective site on aerial imagery, and order yield reports for their solar system. The service is addressing different aspects of solar planning – related to the building itself and atmospheric weather influences – merging them into one single assessment tool. How much solar insolation is incident on a particular rooftop? To answer that question, not only the geometry and structural form of the roof need to be known, but it's equally important to have access to long-term on-site solar insolation records. All these different aspects are covered by focus solar's online planning tool. The aerial imagery is sourced from Microsoft Bing Maps and shows houses and rooftops from a bird's eye perspective. Determining roof pitch and azimuth angle is now an entirely web-based process carried out on the computer screen. The solar insolation records are derived from geostationary weather satellites such as Meteosat (for Europe), GOES (for America) and MTSAT (for Asia and Australia). Processing of weather satellite imagery is carried out by focus solar's own solar radiation algorithm.

All these powerful tools, aerial imagery and insolation data, are made available online, which sets a new stage in solar planning. Rather than working with desktop software, browser-based platforms allow to exploit larger data resources. Users benefit from more realistic environments better representative of the situation as it really is. Bing Maps Bird's eye provides a detailed view of your house, from which you determine your roof's parameters. You'll do everything by what you see which takes the guesswork out of planning. And focus solar's satellite data archive has detailed solar insolation records for your site on file, a completely new quality level in assessing solar microclimates. It's comparable to conducting on-site surveying and extensive radiation measurements without the associated cost.

Who is this service for? Both buyers and installers of solar systems have an interest in independent and accurate yield assessments by a neutral third party. Buyers gain confidence that the estimate comes from a neutral source and installers emphasize the trustworthiness of their offer.

For large-scale solar installations, including PV, CPV and CSP power plants, focus solar serves as data provider and scientific consultant in all questions related to solar radiation, its computation, measurement and validation.

focus solar GmbH, based in Oldenburg, Germany, offers independent consultancy in solar energy. Our experience in solar resource assessment supports the planning of solar energy projects from residential solar, to large-scale photovoltaic (PV), and concentrating solar power (CSP). Blending scientific and engineering expertise in solar technology, we deliver specialist services of outstanding quality. Services include energy yield and optimization analyses, solar map GIS layers and satellite-derived solar irradiation data. Geographically, the service area covers all major solar markets in Europe, North America, Africa, and the Middle East, and is continuously expanded.

Sibylle Petrak | focus solar GmbH
Marie-Curie-Str. 1 | 26129 Oldenburg | Germany
T +49(0)441 36116-560 | F +49(0)441 36116-564
E info@focussolar.de | www.focussolar.de

This release was published on openPR.