The Metropolis of London has launched a brand new on-line software designed to assist owners determine whether or not photo voltaic panels are a viable possibility for his or her electrical energy wants.
The software is a web-based map referred to as MyHEAT Photo voltaic, which permits Londoners to search out out the advantages and prices related to putting in photo voltaic panels, with knowledge particular to their residence.
“We actually need to interact and encourage Londoners to take motion to scale back their emissions,” mentioned Jamie Skimming, vitality and local weather change supervisor for the Metropolis of London.
The map, created by MyHEAT and Google, makes use of Google Maps and different applied sciences akin to aerial imagery to find out the vitality potential of city houses by monitoring climate patterns, orientation of roofs, and the solar’s place within the sky relative to the homes at any given second.
This knowledge is used to offer related info to Londoners in regards to the impression putting in photo voltaic panels can have on their wallets, and the atmosphere.
Customers can enter their handle to search out their residence. When their home is chosen, the web site will instantly present the necessary metrics particular to the measurements taken immediately from the map, together with the steered set up measurement adjusted to the person’s month-to-month electrical energy invoice, and the dimensions of their roof.
The web site outlines extra particulars akin to upfront set up prices, variety of years till the panels pay for themselves, and complete financial savings after 25 years of operation. It additionally consists of what number of tons of carbon dioxide shall be offset, in addition to the variety of comparable timber planted, and the way a lot the quantity of automobile emissions is important.
“If we have a look at our native greenhouse fuel emission sources right here in London, single household houses are our second largest supply of emissions,” Skimming mentioned.
These greenhouse fuel emissions will be considerably diminished when photo voltaic panels are put in on a house, one thing Skimming says makes them an effective way for Londoners to contribute to the Plan. Municipal Local weather Motion.
He added that even the straightforward sight of a neighbor’s photo voltaic panels can put the atmosphere on the forefront of some individuals’s minds.
Solar rise
When Londoners are requested about what they need to do to get the local weather plan into their actions, photo voltaic panels normally come to thoughts for owners, Skimming mentioned.
“It is like shopping for an electrical automobile or shopping for an E-bike,” he added.
Rooftop solar energy technology is on the rise throughout Canada. MyHEAT has web sites arrange in Edmonton and Fredericton, and the Metropolis of Calgary is making an analogous software obtainable in April 2022.
In 2021 throughout an interview with CBC Information, Nicholas Gall, a director of the Canadian Renewable Power Affiliation, mentioned that the demand for photo voltaic installations is on a meteoric rise. Knowledge from his affiliation reveals that industrial and residential photo voltaic technology has grown from sufficient to energy just a few hundred houses a decade in the past, to sufficient to energy greater than 100,000 houses. .
The Metropolis of London hopes to make use of the information collected from customers’ interactions with the MyHEAT map to measure and quantify the demand for photo voltaic vitality in London.
As soon as customers determine their residence on the map, Skimming mentioned hyperlinks to London Hydro and the Canada Greener Houses Grant web page are listed on the web site. These sources present the subsequent steps for Londoners hoping to proceed with the set up.
The MyHEAT photo voltaic map for London will be discovered at this hyperlink: https://photo voltaic.myheat.ca/london/
