I have a solar array on my roof. If I find my house in OSM, there’s a lightning bolt icon indicating there’s a solar array present. Not only that, but the exact layout of the panels in my roof is shown. I never submitted this info to anyone, Google Maps Satellite view doesn’t show them. I’m really curious where OSM got such detailed data.
You don’t need to guess, you can check the history for any object in OSM.
Editing to clarify there are two places where source info might be stored. One is as a source tag on the object itself. The other is as a source on the change set in which your solar array was added.
TIL. And, to confirm what someone else said in a now-deleted comment, a user used Bing aerial data to add it.
Exactly. OpenStreetMap has a big community which is contributing. And every change can be reviewed. Or reverted if its wrong. In the changeset there should also be a source tag like “aerial imagery”, the Editor which was used and also which background imagery was used during edit. For example Bing Maps allows their high resolution imagery to be used for OpenStreetMap.
That is an extremely high level of detail because for me even local businesses aren’t necessarily on the map. Like I went to a blaze pizza the other day and it didn’t show it on the map at all until I added it.
Yes that is typically, because there a lot of mappers which are contributing to OpenStreetMap by aerial imagery. Thanks to you that you add stuff from places which you know by yourself. This is very valuable.
Did you self-install the solar or could the company that did the install (or one of their installers) have added it? Also, I know it sounds crazy, but have you checked Bing maps? It’s been years since I did much with OSM, but I do recall one of the easier OSM editing tools using Bing maps due to licensing reasons, and sometimes their aerial/satellite view is more up to date in sone areas than Google.
I highly doubt the company added it. Most installers don’t even bother to configure the system correctly, let alone create a layout of the panels that were installed
Shouldn’t solar panels be mapped if and only if they consistent of a separate structure and not part of the roof?
@nudnyekscentryk @bruhbeans IIRC, there was a project in the UK which tried to map as many as possible, in order to predict fluctuations in electricity supply.
We know where clouds are with good precision. If we can match this with the locations of solar panels + some math, they could predict small fluctuations.
I guess you could point to that as a good thing because when selling your house people could see that it has solar panels and when the solar panels were added to open street map and to your house. Like, oh, I see this house has had solar panels for at least 10 years.
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