Like many other environment-conscious and cost-conscious homeowners, maybe you’re considering installing solar panels on your roof. Though the sun’s energy is free, the panels represent a significant capital expense. Will you break even, let alone save money, by switching from fossil fuels to solar power?

Now there’s a website that can answer that question definitively, at no cost.

Currently in private beta, SolView is an online system for automatic solar potential estimation for parties on each end of the process: the homeowner and the solar-panel provider.

Using imagery from globally available services, SolView applies a special algorithm developed to identify regions, municipalities, neighborhoods and individual houses where a switch to solar makes sense.

“The U.S. and other places are experiencing a major rise in the number of solar installations and capacity,” says SolView founder Ofer Sadka.

“Hundreds of thousands of new homes are having solar-energy systems installed, and that will dramatically rise over the next few years. Leading companies are trying to find the best way to reach customers, and this is where SolView comes in with its unique technology.”

The Israeli company was founded a year and a half ago with a seed investment from Capital Nature, a venture capital firm focused on the renewable energy field in Israel, in addition to funding from the Office of the Chief Scientist in the Economy Ministry.

“We’re part of the Israeli national renewable energy center in the Arava, and we’re now working with the world’s largest solar companies and making initial significant deals,” Sadka tells ISRAEL21c. “We’ve managed to create the backbone of this technology and bring it to a commercially viable stage.” (via Israel21c)

[Photo: Israeltourism / Flickr ]