Your House's Solar Power Potential

The Mayor of London has released a new interactive map which shows the solar energy potential for every building in London. The map can be used to see how much energy your house could produce with solar panels.

The London Solar Opportunity Map provides an estimate of the potential for both photovoltaic solar panels and solar thermal installations on buildings and land in London. On the map buildings are colored by their solar energy potential (red buildings have the most potential and blue buildings the least). If you click on an individual building on the map you can view the estimated annual output of the building if solar panels were installed, the estimated installed potential and the average annual potential per square metre. You can also use the map side-panel to view the solar potential of a building when using different solar technologies.

The solar potential of individual buildings is based on a number of different factors, including the surface area, the direction of roofs and how much sunlight is blocked by surrounding buildings, trees etc.

In the United States you can use Google's Project Sunroof to view an estimate of how many hours of sunlight your roof receives per year, the square feet you have available for solar panels and the estimated net savings you could make by installing solar panels.

Homeowners and businesses in Switzerland can find out the solar power potential of their buildings using the Swiss Federal Office of Energy interactive map How much electricity or heat can my roof produce?.

In Australia you can use the SunSPoT Solar Potential Map map to work out how much energy a home might be able to generate by installing rooftop solar panels.