Google’s got our solar panels now

google-w-solar-panels2editors-blog-entry3Ever wonder how often Google updates its Google Earth and Google Maps images?

Me too.

I’m still not sure exactly how frequently Google does this, but I do know that sometime in the last few weeks Google updated the satellite image of our Aurora, Colo. neighborhood.

How do I know?

The 26-panel, 5.59 kW solar system we had installed on our roof in June of 2010 is now showing on Google Maps’ satellite shots. — and it wasn’t showing just a few weeks ago.

{googleAds}
<div style="float:left; margin-right: 10px;">
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-7703542917199961";
/* 200x200,
created 12/8/09 */
google_ad_slot = "7950368454";
google_ad_width
= 200;
google_ad_height = 200;
//-->
</script>
<script
type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</div>
{/googleAds}

That’s the cool news.

The not-so-cool news is that we’re the only house in our neighborhood of 50-plus houses with solar. This despite the fact that about 30 of those houses have good to outstanding roofs for solar. Of course, we did just find out that one of our neighbors with an even better roof for solar than ours — we have a great roof for solar — will be getting a 5.7 kW system in April 2011.

Come spring, I’m going to watch the Google Maps satellite shots to keep an eye on when that one goes online for the whole world to see, just like ours recently did.

Related articles–>

prius-resources-page-image Like this story? Interested in the solar EV/PHEV synergy? Join our Sun Miles® Club and start meeting & interacting with other people around the world who want to drive, or already are driving, their cars on sun! Register to join us today!