Data Is Playing a Big Role in Driving Clean Energy 

As we’ve often discussed here, information and communications technology (ICT) is one of the main drivers of the rapid migration to renewable energy.  There are hundreds of different reasons for this, but here’s one that you’ll find the moment you walk into one of the huge events on solar energy, e.g., Intersolar and Solar Power International: an incredible wealth of data on the suitability of each rooftop in the U.S. for solar panels.  This includes information like the (ever changing) height of the trees (and thus potential for shadows) associated with each home in the U.S.

Here’s an article on Google’s website that collects data on solar rooftops, called Project Sunroof.  Since its inception two years ago, it has grown from coverage of just a few states to all 50, i.e., 60 million rooftops across the country.