Solar API overview

  • The Google Maps Platform Solar API leverages Google's geospatial data to provide detailed rooftop insights for evaluating solar energy potential, accelerating solar and energy system installations.

  • The API offers three endpoints: buildingInsights, dataLayers, and geoTiff, to access building-specific insights, raw solar datasets, and encoded solar information rasters respectively.

  • Utilizing the Solar API can significantly reduce site assessment time, remotely design solar systems, optimize installation locations, and create accurate proposals to increase customer conversion.

  • Coverage details for the Solar API are available on a country-by-country basis and a demo web app showcases the API's capabilities.

  • To use the Solar API, users need to set up a Google Cloud project and then utilize the available endpoints to retrieve data based on their specific needs.
European Economic Area (EEA) developers

The Google Maps Platform Solar API is a service focused on helping accelerate solar and energy system installations. The Solar API generates detailed rooftop data based on Google's extensive geospatial data and computing resources in order to evaluate rooftop solar energy potential.

Why use the Solar API

The API accepts requests for three endpoints:

  • buildingInsights: This service endpoint returns insights about the location, dimensions, and solar potential of a building.

  • dataLayers: This service endpoint returns URLs for raw solar information datasets for an area surrounding a location.

  • geoTiff: This endpoint fetches rasters with encoded solar information, including a digital surface model, an aerial image, annual and monthly flux maps, and hourly shade.

This data can help users:

  • Remotely design a solar power system
  • Reduce solar site assessment time
  • Prioritize installation locations
  • Create more accurate proposals
  • Increase customer conversion rates
  • Provide insightful details to educate consumers

Solar API country and region coverage

See Solar API supported countries and regions for the latest coverage details, on a country-by-country basis.

Try the Solar API demo

To learn more about the capabilities of the Solar API, check out the Solar API demo web app. You can also optionally reuse the code used to build the demo in GitHub.

How to use the Solar API

1 Get set up. Start with Set up your Google Cloud project and complete the instructions that follow.
2 Get insights about the location, dimensions and solar potential of a building. See Make a Building Insights request.
3 Get raw solar information for an area surrounding a location. See Make a Data Layers request.

What's next