I was reading my regular feeds today and came upon RoofRay in a post over at GreenTech Blog by Cnet.

Basically what you can do with RoofRay is draw your solar array on YOUR roof using Google Maps and then RoofRay determines your square footage, total potential power generation capabilities and then your payback time. It takes into account all the main variables as well, using data for your region to determine number of sunlight days, smog, etc… In my own situation I learned that I can generate more than enough power for all of my needs using the roof on my garage and my home.

This is a pretty useful tool for anyone considering whether or not solar is right for them and if you are considering the purchase of a home and want to add solar to it, you can see right away whether or not it will work. Do note, however, that there are still a lot of variables to consider that they can’t possibly consider (think neighbors trees) and that ultimately you should still have a professional evaluation done. All in all this is a pretty cool tool.

Source: Cnet Green Tech Blog