SOL:AR Solar procurement support by means of advanced vizualisation

Research Project, 2018

Solar energy and solar shading solutions have great potential to reduce the energy demand in new and existing buildings, but ongoing projects and collaborations in the field show that there are obstacles hindering building owners and potential customers to invest. The digitalization of the sector opens for new digital tools that could make the process simpler from creating an interest for solar energy solutions, to installations and monitoring. A specific opportunity that we aim to explore in this project is a digital visualization tool where customers of solar energy and solar shading solutions can benefit from advanced visualizations and calculations to visualize existing solutions on the market. This would ideally show both how they would look aesthetically on a building or in a city environment, and what energy savings they would result in given a specific location. Such a tool has the potential to make the process more efficient, and create new connections between actors in the solar energy and building sector. However, it also raises legal and organizational questions that need to be addressed before a tool can be realized, including data handling, legal rights, and quality aspects. Our project aims at mapping opportunities and needs around a digital visualization tool, resulting in a technical list of requirements. We do this through workshops with key actors like building owners, solar energy companies, and city planners. The project is a collaboration with partners with complementing competences within the area, including architecture, solar
energy, digitalization, law, and the building sector.