Making solar energy data accessible for everyone

Abstract: Decentralized solar energy is solar energy produced close to where it will be used, rather than at a large facility elsewhere and sent through the national grid. This project involves collecting data from decentralized solar facilities with data collection support, as well as visualizing the data in a format that is adjustable and understandable by everyone. The goal is to share knowledge about renewable energy sources, specifically solar panels and how these can be used in the most efficient way. The authors, together forming Sun Labs, developed a web application with capabilities such as graphing energy production from solar facilities. This visualization was done in a creative and intuitive environment for everyday users as well as professionals. Throughout the design process of the portal we designed for smaller screens first and the larger screens last. This philosophy is called mobile first design and was key to the development of the portal.  The evaluation methods of this project include: UX-testing, unittesting, interviews and manual testing. The evaluation results show that Sun Labs successfully implemented a cross-platform application with the aforementioned capabilities.