MIT Solar System makes rooftop solar easy

MITs Solar System MIT scientists mapped 17,000 rooftops in Cambridge, Mass., providing residents with a web interface to look up their homes and project the cost and return on investment of photovoltaic solar panels. Using satellite imagery and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data from a previous aerial survey to create a 3-D model of Cambridge. Then the team from MIT charted the exact shape of rooftops and possible sunlight