Land control and zoning
Confirm ownership, easements, access, setbacks, and local use requirements before relying on acreage.
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Free commercial solar site estimator
Enter the property address, outline the field intended for clearing and solar, add permanent exclusions, and compare product-shaped fixed-tilt or tracker rows with external-shade and production evidence.
Satellite-first site design
Outline the solar field you intend to clear, mark permanent exclusions, and compare product-shaped fixed-tilt or tracker layouts with site-specific production.
Direct answer
This mode uses a user-drawn satellite boundary rather than a generic rectangle. The boundary is assumed to be the field intended for solar, so it starts with no automatic parcel-style setback. Add permanent exclusions or an optional reserve, then compare three-high fixed-tilt tables with one-module-in-portrait tracker rows placed within the selected shape.
Vegetation and trees inside the field are treated as cleared for the capacity and shade scenario. The height surface still tests elevated objects outside the field along the southern horizon, while PVWatts models the selected system at the property coordinates. The next step verifies parcel control, clearing, zoning, environmental and civil constraints, utility capacity, and final production before economics are presented.
Confirm ownership, easements, access, setbacks, and local use requirements before relying on acreage.
Survey, slope, soils, ledge, drainage, roads, fencing, and foundation choices can reshape the site.
Wetlands, habitat, farmland, floodplain, contamination, and cultural resources need authoritative screening.
A preliminary height-surface shade screen and PVWatts range are included now; utility capacity, curtailment, equipment losses, and final generation are verified later.
Outline the field intended for solar on a measured satellite image, add permanent exclusion polygons, optionally add a perimeter reserve, and compare three-high portrait fixed-tilt tables with one-module-in-portrait tracker rows. The default uses the drawn edge directly and treats vegetation and trees inside the field as cleared. The tool returns measured acreage, panel count, system size, preliminary external-shade evidence, and annual production.
No. The user-drawn satellite polygon is a planning boundary, not a parcel map or survey. Ownership, easements, zoning, wetlands, habitat, slope, soils, drainage, roads, fencing, utility capacity, and interconnection all require site-specific review.
The fixed-tilt preview starts with a 24-inch lower module edge and a selectable 20- or 30-degree table tilt. The 24-inch value is a feasibility assumption, not a universal code minimum; snow, vegetation, grade, module dimensions, and the engineered rack can require a different height. Tracker previews use a representative 1.5-meter rotation axis at the neutral position.
The panel count comes from the selected satellite geometry and layout concept, while annual production remains a feasibility range because equipment losses, shading confidence, grading, final row spacing, snow, curtailment, and interconnection are not construction-ready inputs.
Ground-mount pricing depends on land control, civil work, foundations, geotechnical conditions, clearing, roads, fencing, electrical collection, utility upgrades, and environmental mitigation. Economics follow a verified physical and interconnection scope.