German power provider Eon and internet giant Google have entered into a partnership to help German homeowners assess the solar potential of their rooftops. The two companies have started to offer the “Sunroof” platform in Germany. The platform, based on Google’s machine learning technology, as well as on its applications Google Earth and Google Maps, was previously available only in the United States.
The platform currently covers around seven million buildings in major population centers such as Berlin, Munich, the region of Rhein-Main and the Ruhr Area. The two companies are planning to expand the platform’s capacity to the rest of the country.
Homeowners can use the Sunroof platform to evaluate how much power can produce a PV system installed on their roofs just by writing their address. The PV project will be planned according to a few further parameters like degree of solar radiation, weather data, dimension and inclination of the roof, and possible shadowing.
Software provider Tetraeder will also be part of the partnership. Initially, the Sunroof platform will be active exclusively on Eon-Website, where Eon will also offer its residential PV and solar-plus-storage solutions.
Google launched Sunroof in the United States in 2015. The platform is currently covering approximately 60 million buildings. According to Google, around 79% of the roofs covered by the application were suitable for the installation of a solar power generator, while in the south of the country, their percentage reached 90%.
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