Solar Site Assessment & Design

Programs

Solar Site Assessment & Design Services

We highly recommend that solar site assessment is done at the beginning of any new or retrofit project and even before real estate purchases if the project owner is interested in harvesting solar energy at any time in the future. In this way one can avoid making design decisions that make the harvesting of free solar energy difficult or impossible. Even if you don't have the funds to buy a solar system now, with a little advance planning, you can make sure your project as "Renewable Ready" as possible, which can cut the labor of future solar systems installations by as much as half, thus reducing the cost of your solar system. As the photos below demonstrate, failing to plan for solar from the start can substantially reduce a solar system's ability to pay you back in a reasonable timeframe.

CEC is now collecting solar site assessment raw data on energy audits where appropriate. This allows us to offer the following solar site assessment services:

Photographic Solar Site Assessment

When it is possible to get the site assessment tool at the exact location where you want to be able to collect solar energy, it is possible to do a solar site assessment with only photographically recorded inputs to determine the fraction of available solar energy a collection device (eg. window of a house, solar hot water system, photovoltaic solar electric system, etc.) at that location would receive. You will receive a photographic record of the available solar energy at the measured location(s), and a written report giving the times of shading at the location and the percentage of the available solar energy you can expect at that location monthly and annually.

Photographic +3d model Solar Site Assessment

When a client wants a solar site assessment done for a location that is either hard to reach (a roof in winter), or doesn't yet exist (the roof of a future building), a 3d computer model can be created from photographic data taken as close as possible to the future desired solar collector location. In addition to the above deliverables, you will receive a 3d model of your site (including proposed solar collector locations & surrounding site context that casts shadows) in the form of a Google Sketchup file. This file can be opened and manipulated with the free version of Google Sketchup, which can be downloaded from this webpage: http://sketchup.google.com/download/ This 3d model can be used for solar design, since Sketchup has the accurate path of the sun through the sky for your location on the planet built into it.

Solar Design Services

Typically a solar designer tries to locate solar collectors so they receive solar energy from 9am - 3pm (sun time) year round, and direct gain windows from 9am - 3pm (sun time) during the heating season. You can turn on the Sketchup shadows and watch as the sun tracks across your project any day of the year. We can also work with a designer's existing Sketchup or Sketchup compatible files (like Autocad) instead of starting a file from scratch. We can also provide solar design services (such as sizing and positioning shading devices like overhangs) for new or retrofit projects, and/or provide training in Sketchup's solar design capabilities.

To learn more about our solar site assessment and design services, please contact Christina Snyder or at 888.818.0987 x707.