Solar mapping
Perth, 28th April 2014
With the move to our new office all gone smoothly in Singapore, I have made my way to Perth to follow up on some work here. On my way I read an interesting article in the Singapore Straits Times in regards to a government funded project that aims to map and analyse each and every rooftop in the island country with the aim to provide a 3D map showing the suitability of the rooftops to harness solar energy. By giving it different colour codes from yellow to red it will give the user (the map will be publicly accessible) a rating of each site. The ratings will be in consideration of the height of the building, the possible shading from surrounding buildings, the slanting of the roofs, their orientation, etc. Daylight models are being created to simulate the shadow forming as the sun rises and sets, all this with the aim to give potential solar power users maximum information about the suitability of their property or possible future property in regards to using solar energy.
The project, which is driven by the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore, hopes that this island wide effort to photograph and map in 3D the entire country landscape will stimulate and warm Singaporeans up towards the use of solar energy. The project is expected to be ready for launch by 2016. When ready people will be able to log on, click on the property of their interest and learn how much solar panel capacity could fit on the roof, the power it could generate, what it might cost and how quickly they could recoup their investment. According to the Singapore Government the cost of installing and maintaining solar panels has become on a par with the cost using conventional electricity. The current kilowatt hour price in Singapore is 25.7 cents for conventional electricity tariffs. This is for the general public. Special tariffs are available for big time commercial or industrial users.
I think it is a great initiative and above all a great incentive and help for the general public (even for us professionals!) to quickly understand whether solar power makes sense in a specific project or development! I look forward to see it!
Light Watch 5-70: The Singapore solar panel landscape… The current website already shows what has been installed…
The long awaited book compilation of Martin's first year of blogging is available. Order now.
Feedspot Top 100 Lighting Blogs