GeoEye Inc., a provider of geospatial information and insight, has entered into a strategic relationship with Geostellar.
Under the terms of the agreement, GeoEye will supply Earth imagery, digital surface models and other mapping data to help Geostellar expand its service. GeoEye also intends to take a small equity position in the company.
Geostellar says it has built an analytics platform that automatically determines how quickly a given property owner can recoup an investment in solar energy. The company's platform models roof slopes, shadows, weather patterns, local utility rates and solar energy subsidies to automate what has historically been a highly manual process.
The company has built solar maps in Washington, D.C., Boston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New Jersey, where government agencies have made aerial imagery freely available, but it needed a strategic partner to help collect and process data to catalog the solar power potential of all propertes in the U.S.
GeoEye will become Geostellar's Earth imagery vendor of choice and apply image processing capabilities developed by GeoEye Analytics to provide the data required to develop solar maps for key metropolitan markets.
