Proactive Investors - Google plans to license mapping data to solar energy developers and design companies and could earn more than $100 million in the process, according to a report from CNBC.
The Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc company intends to sell access to new API (application programming interfaces) offering energy data on individual buildings, or all buildings in a particular area, along with air quality information.
Its customers could include the likes of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Energy and other solar panel installers like Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN), along with solar design firms such as Aurora Solar. It could also find buyers in real estate companies like Zillow (NASDAQ:Z) and others, plus hospitality operators and utilities, according to a list of potential customers.
Google claims to possess data on 350 million buildings — a dramatic increase from the 60 million it reported in 2017 as part of Project Sunroof, the company’s solar savings calculator.
Project Sunroof lets users get an estimated solar cost based on their address and can display 3D models of building roofs and nearby tall trees.
All told, the documents estimate that the solar APIs will drive $90 to $100 million in their first year.
There is precedent for Google licensing mapping APIs. In 2019, Uber said it paid Google $58 million over a three-year span for navigation APIs.