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Boston and a local startup called Mapdwell have released a mapping system that lets residents look up their home's roof size and then figure out how much installation of solar panels would cost them.

The city hopes the map will help it reach a goal of having 25 MW of solar energy capacity by 2020 - it's currently at about 12 MW.

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Comments

The city could hit their goal by putting solar panels on the TD Garden alone!

Problem solved

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I was all turned around, I meant the Boston Convention Center, not the Garden.

Still though, 12.5 mW for one (giant) building

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Until the shadows from the new towers

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Yeah, shadows are the big limiter. A lot of residential buildings aren't suitable for solar because of trees.

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What towers are you referring to? The convention center is in a flight path.

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North Station not the South Boston's white elephant.

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As indicated in the comments.

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There are a number of calculation sites out there.

http://www.altfuelsnow.com/solar-energy/hands-free-solar-calculator.php is an earlier example.

Design for this looks pretty good, seems to be optimized for tablets and smart phones which is sensible.

Looks like yet another example of a forward looking and earnest city gov.

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I've got a 2.2 kilowatt array (8 large 275-watt panels) w/ the cool Enphase inverters that do the DC to AC conversion right on the panel sitting unused in my garage since spring.

Mainly due to the complexity of doing the grid-tie electrical work - multiple layers of inspections from the city and utility companies are required before you can turn it on and with that level of attention you need an electrician willing to pull permits and do clean work. It's amazing how fast that Angies List electricians stop returning calls once you tell them that permits have to be pulled for the gig.

Finally have a guy willing to do the work and now I'm dreading scheduling and managing all of the inspections. Fingers crossed I'll have the damn thing online and running before the snow starts.

The cool thing about solar is seeing how fast the prices have dropped. What used to be a 10-20 year payoff period is now down to just a few years. The longer you wait the cheaper it gets and we are probably just a decade away from a bunch of materials science breakthroughs will allow solar collection stuff to be built into shingles, siding and maybe even exterior house paint at some point. Eventually it's going to be invisible and everywhere

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