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Landing Page
Inspiration
With climate change and its effects becoming an increasingly important issue, we wanted to develop a web app that promoted green energy and sustainable practices. After discovering Google's Solar API, we knew we could leverage it to achieve our goal of promoting sustainability, lowering carbon emissions, and helping our planet.
What it does
Given a location's address, we return the building's solar panel eligibility, approximate installation costs, approximate electric bill savings, and estimated carbon offset with the help of Google's Geocode and Solar APIs.
How we built it
We built the front-end with React, and the back-end with Node.JS, Express.JS, and MongoDB (MERN).
Challenges we ran into
Was unable to display API data on the front-end due to a bug that led Express to believe that the JSON files were formatted incorrectly, although they were not.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Despite it being our first hackathon and first big project, we designed a clean, intuitive front-end linked to a Node/Express back-end.
What we learned
Technical: We developed a better understanding of how Node/Express interact with the React, and how to get the two to communicate First Hackathon Experience: We experienced firsthand how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. While spending so much of the hackathon at the sponsor fair, workshops, and events, we still managed to create a professional-looking web app that neither of us individually thought we could accomplish in such a short window of time.
What's next for Solar Savings
We're committed to determining the cause of the bug, and fully-fleshing out all the intended features of the website. We will add a register/login system, that gives users access to a dashboard where they can view their total money saved and carbon emission offset based on how long they've been using solar panels.
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