Going solar? Seven sites map your plans

Homeowners who dream of their electric meter spinning backward may seek solar panels to slash bills and carbon emissions. But where to start?

Before you call a contractor, these sites can assist with the early steps, like summing up what you could spend or save in your neighborhood.

The pioneering San Francisco Solar Map offers personalized evaluations.

San Francisco Solar Map

The San Francisco Solar Map helps locals lay their solar plans. A Google map pegs projects already up and running. Type in your address for estimates of installation fees and long-term utility bill savings and to find installers listed by the California Energy Commission.

Fog City's municipal rebates, added to state and federal incentives, probably make it the least expensive place for homeowners and businesses to add photovoltaics. Residents taking advantage of all discounts might drop the hardware and construction costs from, say, $25,000 to $7,000. The Web site supports Mayor Gavin Newsom's goal of 10,000 solar rooftops by 2012. It's the work of the San Francisco Department of the Environment and CH2M Hill, a consulting firm.

Solar Boston's map displays the solar potential for an address or even a city block.

Solar Boston

Mayor Thomas Menino's Solar Boston project aims to ramp up installations from half a megawatt to 25 megawatts by 2015. Its Flash-based map tracks solar, wind, biomass, and hydropower sources around town. You can enter an address, select a building, or even highlight an area on the map, to view the potential in dollars and kilowatts for topping roofs with photovoltaics.

Both San Francisco and Boston belong to the Department of Energy's Solar America Cities initiative to fast-track the spread of solar power. The two cities' maps are early, model tools. I'd also like to see peer comments and Yelp-like ratings of services and products. And I'd expect such services to help consumers share tips and report about the longest-lasting equipment as the solar sector matures. For instance, I found more than three dozen installers within 30 miles of my San Francisco apartment, but I'd have to do research elsewhere to decide whom to trust.

How do solar panels affect a home's resale value? Somebody should integrate solar maps with real estate listings, in the style of Trulia or Zillow.

Cooler Planet's maps include regional incentives around the country to estimate solar costs and savings.

Cooler Planet

Cooler Planet's solar maps cover territory from coast to coast. Google Maps mashups from the Seattle environmental marketing firm chart solar rebates, existing installations, costs and savings, and installers around the country. We learned that photovoltaic panels atop a three-flat in Chicago, where only federal incentives are available, could halve the $300 monthly electric bill and pay for themselves after 28 years.

Cooler Planet also rates solar incentives by state, painting Louisiana and Oregon as surprisingly bright. Another map tracks the growth of solar in California since 1999.

Choose your building, and Sungevity will create an estimate of its solar potential.

Sungevity

Sungevity asks you to pick your San Francisco Bay-area building on a map and describe the roofing material in exchange for an e-mail quote of solar costs. Technology from Microsoft Virtual Earth enables the company to take into account the angle of a roof, which affects the light available to solar panels throughout the day. That could lead to fewer measurements in person, saving time and money.

RoofRay relies on your rooftop drawing to figure a slanted roof into its cost estimates.

RoofRay

RoofRay also looks at the slant of a roof, although with less precision than Sungevity. Locate your building on a Google Map, draw an outline of the roof, and estimate the pitch. RoofRay asks for your average monthly electric bill, then spells out a detailed financial analysis. The site requires registration and asks for snail mail and e-mail addresses with a phone number. To put an interactive RoofRay widget on a blog, code is available for a quick cut-and-paste.

This rapidly-growing grassroots effort aims to get more than One Block off the Grid.

1BOG

San Franciscans Sylvia Ventura and Dan Barahona launched One Block Off the Grid in June to help bring cheaper solar power to the people. The effort organizes homeowners to bargain together with businesses to drive down the costs of installation. Several dozen people who joined the first campaign enjoyed savings of up to 40 percent, according to 1BOG.

Last week, the couple sold their nonprofit to Virgance, a social media and activism start-up. The 1,153-member solar effort has spread to 20 cities. It's even taking a stab at solar agreements between tenants and landlords. Neighborhood Solar is a similar grassroots purchasing program in Denver, where 1BOG is establishing a toehold.

Wattbot's recommendations of cleaner energy technologies are set to launch in January.

Wattbot

Wattbot, which remains in preview testing, promises custom evaluations in January to help households save money and carbon emissions. Share your address, and it will detail potential energy-efficiency and renewable technologies for your address. More than a solar-referral tool, it will also evaluate the financial impact of modest tweaks, like swapping old lightbulbs with compact fluorescents. You'll be able to contact service providers, take notes on projects, and connect with fellow users.

For now, there's just a simple U.S. heat map of renewable energy adoption. Wattbot is also building a service for clean-tech companies to track sales leads and get market research. The planned features, if realized, could make this site a unique hub in the clean-energy, green-building marketplace.

This post was updated to add a more detailed image of a quote from Sungevity.

[Manhattan2]

Keep fixed solar panels off of any rooftop. All these sites and the manufacturers that are recommending putting solar panels up on your own roof in our opinion are making a dire mistake. Solar will never make it's mark in renewable energy if that is the approach. Look up Solar Transfer for the future of solar power. The information is coming soon. The answer will be seen in 2009. Maybe the next administration will be more open to real change, real answers. Mitch Govansky

Mitch,

Your site is full of typos and amateurish to say the least. There is a lot of conjecture with no solutions. It would seem to me if you have the miracle cure, you would bring it forth instead of masking it under this feeble attempt of brilliance.

[Manhattan2]

The devices we will capture solar energy with are brilliant. Phase 1 and 2 of the Solar Transfer solution are simply being put out there to give people the choice. A choice to wait for real solutions. 2009! New administration that talks about change. We will see if they are ready to make the bold moves that need to be made in renewable energy capture.

[dtuman]

Elsa: Thanks for the Zillow mention in this solar article and thanks for spending the time to dig out sources for consumers on going solar. I hear it's quite expensive, but it's about time we all started thinking of alternative solutions. It will be interesting to see how Obama reacts to renewable energy sources. We did a post on wondering if the White House will go solar: http://www.zillowblog.com/will-the-obama-white-house-go-solar/2008/11/

[Manhattan2]

Please email us if you hear anything about putting Solar Panels on the White House. If that happens we will know that there is no hope for renewable energy. Panels on the White House is the last thing we should do. Just showing off to your neighbors that you have solar panels on your roof does not make you green. [e-mail]

in 2003 solar panels (9KW) were installed by evergreen solar, using SMA inverters.
nobody seems to have noticed...?

[turbosol16]

SolarTransfer is run by Sensible Ventures LLC. If you take a look at their site they have no products that actually exist.

[Manhattan2]

2009 release on many of the products. We found it only appropriate to release our findings about Solar Power early to help those that are trying to purchase solar units. Give them a chance to delay their purchase for devices that will generate 2-4 times more energy for the same invested dollar. Extend that over 30 years and you will see why we found it appropriate to hint at what is to come. The Earth and those truly interested in efficient green solutions will benefit from our work. Email us if you want the early release information. Not trying to sell you anything like others! Run the numbers! Mitch Govansky

[willdryden]

That's why there are no electric cars. Got to wait for the next great battery. But the battery never gets here or is too expensive.

[isykal]

The Solar Transfer website says a lot about ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. It looks like a scam that tries to capitalize on slightly uninformed investors and consumers.

[Manhattan2]

Not selling anything. Just getting the word out about the errors in the current programs. This is not a situation where a little bit of good will do. The numbers do not add up for enough people to jump into Solar Power with the current configurations. There is a better way.

[rowdyguy124]

Manhattan2, That article on your website was written 3 years ago! It asked to wait "a year or two". So where are your findings or proposals at? It's all but 2009!!! This planet doesn't have time to wait any longer. There will always be a better solution down the road with anything. It's called progress. Luckily for you the home equity loans many would use to make an investment like this will likely wait till the end of Obama's term of the start of another term 4-6 years from now when the housing market is again stable. But people would jump on a CHEAP and effective solution. What ever happened to the conductive solar paint we saw on tv years ago? This R&D needs done now! I'd gladly paint my roof with the stuff or use inexpensive panels $1-$4 a square foot, to save on my energy bill and reduce CO2 levels.

[b_baggins]

Solar on the roof could be cool. If you can get the price down to about $1200 installed. Without tax subsidies (that tax money comes from somewhere, which is why Calif. is 48 bln in debt)

[grand2--2008]

First, we need to get a few facts straight. When the media uses the words "solar", "solar panel", or "solar collector", they only mean the high visibility photovoltaic cells that produce electricity. They aren't referring to the real solar enery technoogy that produces hot water.

PV is currently not cost effective for home owners. Its cost is sky high, equivalent to paying $25-$40/kWh.

Solar thermal is equivalent to about $6-7/kWh. That is below most electric rates.

PV systems can be economical in one scenario - grid distribution, where the utility is an active partner is distributing the electricity, eliminating battery storage costs, and load management. In many places, utilities that don't want this competition have fixed the prices they pay as low as possible, to discourage competition.

Solar thermal systems are durable work horses that can run 25years with little care (not zero, just little). That beats the lifetime of all conventional heating devices, including furnaces, water heaters, boilers, etc.
Stirling thermal engines that produce electricity are up to 31% efficient, beating the ~12% efficiency of PV by a factor of 3.

So, if you need heat - restaurants, car washes, laundries, hot water and space heating of homes, pools, spas, process hot water baths, etc., then thermal solar is the preferred way to get green energy.

[BG4807]

In the area where i live the govt. is subsidizing wind mill power. It is a good atempt of not being oil dependant, but the problem is french companies own them. GET IT? So lets go solar, subsidize american built solar here at home. Make home based solar products and subsidize home owners who want to help. The state i live in will give you 1$ for every 3$ of power you put in the grid. The research ive done will cost an average home owner 15-25 thousand dollars to build, it would take 10-20 yrs to break even on this investment (solar has a 20 yr lifespan) there is no incentive....too expensive....no payback..How about dollar for dollar and make it so joe plumber can get his investment back after its paid for then give 1$ for every 3$... might work..................

[jdukvoac]

Manhatten2, are you serious? Because after looking at your so called "web site" I would have thought it to be some 3rd grade weekend project! You have absoluetly NO relevant information. If your business is hinging on this website alone, then you will be out of business very very soon! There is another web site called "Blacklight Power" at http://www.blacklightpower.com which if it's not some sort of hoax, has the potential to change our planet on a very real and large scale. There is some debate as to wether or not the technology discovered is possible, from a physics standpoint, but evidently it has been demo'd and they have their first commercial contract with Estacado Energy in Mexico. I first heard of them when they were featured on CNN during my luch hour. Interesting stuff.

As far as this "super" breakthrough that Manhatten2 is jabering about, Rowdyguy124 nailed it on the head when he said "This planet doesn't have time to wait any longer. There will always be a better solution down the road with anything. It's called progress." We are seeing an ever increasing demand for solutions, and hopefully companies such as Blacklight can help in attaining these goals. We are slowly and steadily ravaging our planet, and we need to start reducing our negative human impact on this floating home of ours, or we may not have a home for very long. And anyone who thinks that we are just going through a "cycle" or that there is no such thing as global warming, then keep your head in the sand.

Sorry for the rant.
Joe