SunView Florida

Inspiration

Florida has enormous potential for residential solar energy, but many installers still rely on broad marketing strategies that are expensive and inefficient. We wanted to build a tool that helps companies identify the areas where their outreach can have the greatest impact while making it easier to expand access to renewable energy. Our goal was to turn complex geographic and property data into something intuitive and actionable.

What it does

SunView Florida is an interactive mapping platform that helps solar companies identify neighborhoods with high solar market potential. Users can explore the map from the state level down to cities and neighborhoods, allowing them to quickly locate areas with many homes that could benefit from solar installations. By focusing outreach on high-potential areas, companies can reduce wasted marketing efforts and spend more time connecting with likely customers. Our platform also uses Gemini's API to produce simple financial analyses, helping installers better understand potential value and insights to homeowners.

How we built it

We built SunView Florida as a web application using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The interactive map is powered by Leaflet, with geographic data provided through GeoJSON files. We combined publicly available datasets with custom processing to visualize solar potential at multiple geographic levels. The interface allows users to seamlessly drill down from statewide data to neighborhoods, creating an experience that is both informative and easy to navigate. We also implemented Google's Gemini API to analyze property information to provide users with insight and translating data into recommendations.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was working with large geographic datasets while keeping the website responsive. We also had to determine how to represent multiple levels of information without overwhelming the user. Designing a smooth drill-down experience and ensuring that map interactions remained intuitive required several iterations throughout development.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of creating a clean, interactive visualization that transforms complex geographic data into useful business insights. We successfully built a multi-level mapping experience that allows users to move naturally from a statewide overview to neighborhood-level information. Most importantly, we created a project with real-world applications that could help solar companies make more informed marketing decisions.

What we learned

Throughout the project, we gained experience working with geospatial data, interactive web mapping, and data visualization. We also learned how to optimize large datasets for the web and collaborate effectively as a team while balancing technical implementation with user experience.

What's next for SunView Florida

Our next goal is to expand the platform with more detailed property-level insights, including roof characteristics, estimated solar generation, and additional demographic information. We'd also like to integrate more of live data sources such as the Google Solar API, expand the location coverage and provide tools that help installers plan outreach campaigns directly within the platform. In addition, we would like to implement a reliable and scalable method of contacting the Gemini API.