Solar Panel API

.This API adds intelligence to the energy transition by combining AI-driven detection with open services, enabling smarter decisions, faster adoption, and stronger collaboration in renewable energy.

Introduction

The Netherlands has set ambitious goals to transition toward a carbon-neutral future, with solar energy playing a central role in its renewable energy strategy. While adoption rates of rooftop solar panels are steadily increasing, one of the challenges policymakers, municipalities, and energy providers face is accurately tracking solar panel installations across the country.

To address this challenge, we developed an AI-powered solar panel detection system that identifies and maps solar panels on Dutch homes using aerial and satellite imagery. This innovation is more than just a technical achievement—it is a practical tool that enhances decision-making, supports the national climate agenda, and empowers households to contribute to a cleaner future.

Features of the Solar Panel API

The Solar Panel API enriches property datasets by automatically detecting solar panels and HVAC units on rooftops across the Netherlands. By leveraging high-resolution aerial imagery from PDOK WMS (latest update: September 2025), the API transforms raw geospatial data into actionable sustainability insights. Each property is uniquely identified by its BAG ID, ensuring accurate linkage to national property registries and enabling large-scale analysis.

Key Capabilities

• Automated Detection: Identifies solar panels and HVAC units with high accuracy using advanced AI and computer vision models.

• Property-Level Insights: Links energy infrastructure to individual buildings via BAG IDs, making results easy to integrate into municipal, research, and commercial systems.

• Scalable Data Access: Designed as an API for seamless integration into existing dashboards, GIS platforms, and decision-support systems.

• Up-to-Date Imagery: Uses the most recent aerial imagery provided by PDOK, ensuring reliable and current results.

• Metadata Delivery: Returns detection confidence scores, bounding box coordinates, and surface area estimates to support further analysis such as solar capacity planning.

Benefits

• For Municipalities: Gain insight into local solar adoption and HVAC usage for climate policy, subsidy tracking, and targeted sustainability programs.

• For Grid Operators: Monitor regional solar penetration to anticipate grid balancing needs and plan energy storage solutions.

• For Researchers & Planners: Access nationwide, property-level renewable energy data without the need for costly surveys or manual audits.

• For Businesses: Enhance property databases with sustainability attributes for real estate valuation, insurance risk models, or energy consulting.

Authentication & Required Parameters

To use the Solar Panel API, there are two key requirements for making a request:

• x-api-key: This key is mandatory for authentication. You must include the valid API key in each request to ensure secure and authorized access.

• search: This parameter is mandatory for specifying the desired postal code. Without the correct postal code, the API will not return results, so ensure that it is properly included in the request.

These two elements ensure that every search is authenticated and accurately targeted, allowing the API to deliver the most relevant data efficiently.

Conclusion

The Solar Panel API delivers actionable intelligence to the real estate sector, transforming how professionals assess and showcase property sustainability. By combining AI-driven detection with BAG ID integration, it allows stakeholders to make informed decisions, improve property valuation, and identify market opportunities.

This API equips real estate professionals with scalable, property-level insights, supporting a greener, smarter, and more competitive housing market in the Netherlands.