Google to begin selling maps data to companies building solar products, hopes to generate $100 million in first year

Google is planning to license new units of mapping information to a spread of corporations to make use of as they construct merchandise round renewable vitality, and is hoping generate as much as $100 million in its first 12 months, CNBC has realized.

The firm plans to promote entry to new APIs (software programming interfaces) with photo voltaic and vitality data and air high quality, in response to supplies seen by CNBC.

Among the brand new choices will likely be a Solar API, which may very well be utilized by photo voltaic installers like SunRun and Tesla Energy and photo voltaic design corporations like Aurora Solar, in response to a listing of instance prospects seen by CNBC. Google additionally sees buyer alternatives with actual property corporations like Zillow, Redfin, hospitality corporations like Marriott Bonvoy, and utilities like PG&E.

Some of the info from the Solar API will come from a consumer-focused pilot known as Project Sunroof, a photo voltaic financial savings calculator that initially launched in 2015. The program permits customers to enter their deal with and to obtain estimated photo voltaic prices reminiscent of electrical invoice financial savings and the scale of the photo voltaic set up they’re going to want. It additionally gives 3D modeling of the roofs of buildings and close by timber based mostly on Google Maps information. 

Google plans to promote API entry to particular person constructing information, in addition to aggregated information for all buildings in a specific metropolis or county, one doc states. The firm says it has information for over 350 million buildings, in response to paperwork, up considerably from the 60 million buildings it cited for Project Sunroof in 2017.

One inside doc estimates the corporate’s photo voltaic APIs will generate income between $90 and $100 million within the first 12 months after launch. There’s additionally a possible to attach with Google Cloud merchandise down the road, paperwork state.

As a part of the deliberate launch, the corporate can be planning to announce an Air Quality API that can let prospects request air high quality information, reminiscent of pollution and health-based suggestions for particular areas. It’ll additionally embrace digital warmth maps of the info and hourly air high quality data, in addition to air high quality historical past of as much as 30 days.

Google didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The newest income play comes as the corporate has been making an attempt to monetize its maps merchandise because it faces strain to supply income amid a broader financial slowdown. While the corporate is specializing in changing into extra environment friendly, it is also been investing in newer applied sciences like generative AI and sustainability — a promote it hopes to make the most of with the Solar API.

The firm presently licenses its mapping API for navigation to corporations like Uber, which stated in 2019 it paid Google $58 million over there years. Maps API income goes towards the corporate’s cloud phase, which lastly turned worthwhile within the first quarter however has had a rocky path towards making an attempt to compete with market leaders Amazon and Microsoft.

Google would not escape how a lot its Maps business makes, but it surely has traditionally been one in every of Google’s most under-monetized merchandise, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak advised CNBC in 2021. At the time, Morgan Stanley had estimated Google Maps would earn $11.1 billion by this 12 months as new journey merchandise and promoted pins started to extend advert income.

The transfer additionally comes as the corporate makes an attempt to streamline its mapping merchandise. In June, CNBC discovered the corporate was shedding staff at traffic-reporting app Waze, which it acquired in 2013, and mixing it with the Google Maps group.