Identifying and Viewing Rooftop Solar Potential: A Case Study for the City of Redlands, California

Increasingly scarce resources pose new challenges to human development in the twenty-first century. As a result of the shifting focus to renewable energy in order to meet the different needs of sustainable development, human society will inevitably experience numerous transformations on a variety of scales. Solar radiation plays a key role in achieving the objectives of sustainable development. Due to the potential variation over space and time, efficient utilization of solar energy requires that people understand the diverse spatial and temporal patterns of incoming solar radiation. This project was aimed at developing a Web-based solar map for the City of Redlands using DEMs generated from high resolution LiDAR data. This online solar map will provide the means to inform people of the latest updates regarding solar radiation, and also support their decision-making process in identifying ideal locations of solar panels for maximizing their benefits