Geospatial Solar

Inspiration

A few months ago I was looking through the various APIs Google had available and noticed the Solar API. Reading the documentation I was inspired to create a tool that let you choose a location to analyse in augmented reality.

I made a simple prototype which I have expanded on and improved to enter into this hackathon: https://twitter.com/mechpil0t/status/1701828592374825020

What it does

The app used the Google Geospatial Geometry to allow the user to tap on a building. The app then uses the Google Geospatial API to get the location of the tapped building and then queries the Google Solar API using that location. Once the app receives the data it visualises the potential area and number of solar panels in AR.

How we built it

It is built using Unity, the Google Geospatial API and Google Solar API.

Challenges we ran into

The main challenge was how best to display the information. In the initial prototype I simply showed some text to the user, but I wanted to better display the area and number of solar panels to the user. It was challenging to show this dry data in an interesting way.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The simple but effective tap to select a building mechanic feels very satisfying.

What we learned

Don't judge a building’s solar potential by its cover. Some large buildings have very little potential while some modest size buildings seem ripe for solar.