☀️ Solar Viability Analysis

Address-to-financial-analysis for residential rooftop solar in California — powered by NREL irradiance data, Berkeley Lab install records, and a 25-year cashflow engine.

2.6M-row DuckDB warehouse 2,593 CA ZIPs scored NEM 3.0 model 30% federal ITC 65 tests · CI green
📄 Read the Technical Paper (PDF)

Explore the Data

City Reports

Deep-dive viability reports for individual cities — full 25-year cashflow charts, LCOE breakdown, payback curves, and recommendation verdict.

ZIP Heatmaps

Interactive maps of viability scores across all 2,593 California ZIP codes. Includes statewide view and NorCal / Bay Area focus, with confidence tiers from real install data.

Technical Paper

The full IEEE-style writeup — OLTP/OLAP architecture, the DuckDB warehouse schema, the 25-year financial model, the URDB staleness guard, and end-to-end verification.

About the Project

Each analysis models a 4.5 kW residential rooftop system using irradiance and weather data from the NREL PVWatts API. Financial projections use current California NEM 3.0 tariff schedules (CPUC avoided-cost export credit ≈ $0.055/kWh), the 30% federal Investment Tax Credit, and 2024 retail electricity rates ($0.389/kWh blended IOU average).

The viability score (0–100) weights four components: 25% solar resource, 50% economics (LCOE, payback, NPV), 15% site fit, and 10% local market maturity. Scores above 65 indicate a solid investment for most homeowners.

Data: NREL PVWatts · Berkeley Lab Tracking the Sun · EIA · DSIRE. Built for DATA 201 at Cal Poly Humboldt.