Use data, analytics and mapping to help more solar panels get installed on more rooftops — that’s the idea behind startup Geostellar, which this week closed on almost $ 14 million in equity funding and options, according to a filing. The company lists satellite imaging company GeoEye and Flash Forward Ventures as investors on its site.
Two-year-old Geostellar pulls together dozens of different types of data into its solar analytics platform, including information about weather, shadows, roof slope, closest transmission lines, property values, land use, electricity rates, solar subsidies, and solar hazards. All that data (and more) goes into a system that solar installers and utilities can use to search for useful data to target solar customers.
For example, a solar installer could search Geostellar’s system for the locations of rooftops of a certain size in New Jersey or California and hone a mailing list down to the best potential candidates. The system can also estimate the amount of solar power, in kilowatt-hours/per year, that any rooftop would be able to produce if it had panels on it.
Satellite imaging is key to the platform, and Geostellar is using GeoEye’s satellite imagery and processing technology to crunch the needed solar data. The solar rooftop companies are all fighting over a few select markets right now and are interested in using analytics to boost their sales.
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