Top solar online tools 

Over the years the Solar Market Pathways project (a U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office initiative) backed 14 innovative U.S. solar projects to  grow solar energy adoption by absorbing some solar costs from the back end. Over time, these iniatives created an overflow of new online tools and how-to guides to assist customers and prospects to research and make decisions about solar energy. The tools are financial calculators, increasing more solar smart rooftop potential tools, manuals, checklists, and software to assimilate solar with battery storage systems. They  concentrate on community solar, energy resilience, new markets, colleges and universities, and multi-family housing. Below are several of the best online tools and guides:

Solar Finance Simulator

The Solar Finance Simulator is an online tool for businesses to simulate long-term financial forecasting for several types of solar investments. By applying their own values, users can measure   projections for  ownership, power purchase agreements (PPA), debt financing, and operating leases. It works for both taxable and tax-exempt entities. It guides potential projects, assesses proposals, or assists users with more understanding of financing structures and transaction costs. The Midwest Renewable Energy Association provides online and in-person training on this tool.
 

Solar Resilient

Due to the threat of natural disasters, the City and County of San Francisco has developed a plan to deploy solar storage systems for emergencies. To evaluate buildings, they developed SolarResilient. It’s a tool that calculates technical specifications for solar and battery systems. It gives  building owners and city departments an opportunity to screen on building to  develop  options before taking on more studies. It permits  users to create an efficient way to develop a holistic energy security strategy for a city or county.
 

Community Solar Case Tool

The community solar case tool is a  spreadsheet tool for evaluating the pros and cons of a community solar project. Illinois enabled legislation for community solar, since interest is strong with developers and customers. Its a financial model that applies the panel purchase or lease price as a basis for project economics. It calculates costs, performance, and benefits, and provides breakeven price for purchased or leased systems from the perspective of the customer. Key inputs customizes the analysis.

 
Potential maps and calculators

The City University of New York’s Sustainable CUNY program created a dashboard presenting the  statistics on the growth of solar in the state for county and city-level maps, charts, and more interactive features. Interestingly enough, the map layers, displaying solar deployment, costs, utility data, permitting regulations, and the location of battery storage systems. A cost and performance calculator applies Google Sunroof data on exposure to the size and performance of a system on buildings. Its currently investigating optimal locations for siting solar and storage on critical facilities.
 
The departments aims to support solar technology to make researching and decision making more streamlined and efficient. If you want to move into the future and join the solar revolution, or if you want to find out what solar panels are right for you, go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. You can see how much a system will cost, and how much you can save over the next 20 years. For more information relating to going solar, don't forget to visit our solar blog section for more handy guides and articles.