Estimating Solar Panel Output with Open-Source Data

A comprehensive guide for what it takes to estimate solar panel output using Python and QGIS

To figure out how much solar energy a rooftop can produce, we need the following information:

1. Roof slope
2. Roof azimuth (orientation towards the Sun)
3. Number of solar panels a roof can hold
4. Shading factor (the percentage of light that is blocked from shadows)
5. Solar irradiance (how much total sunlight the roof receives)

The problem is that determining the …

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