SolarCity Simulator

The SolarCity is a web-based simulator application created to help households, businesses and municipal authorities evaluate their prospects for generating electricity using rooftop-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) systems.

For homes and businesses, the simulator provides the means to calculate likely savings from rooftop solar PV compared to other power sources and based on a cash flow financing model.

For municipal authorities, the simulator supports assessments of different policy incentives – such as generation or capital subsidies – on each city’s rooftop solar PV market.

The SolarCity simulator combines ultra-high-resolution three-dimensional building footprints with solar irradiation data, computed at one metre (m) grid cells. It is one of a series of web applications developed by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) as part of the Global Atlas for Renewable Energy.