This document provides details about the Milwaukee Shines - The Solar Initiative project. The project aims to identify the best locations in Milwaukee for installing solar panels through analysis in GIS. The analysis will identify 150 rooftops with the highest solar potential. Methods used include calculating solar radiation for buildings in targeted neighborhoods and ranking results. Websites were created to display the analysis and allow users to view solar potential for specific buildings.

1. Milwaukee Shines – The Solar Initiative
May, 2009
Team Members:
David Karrer
Tiffany LaBorde
Sarah Lill
Erin Reynolds

2. Project Name:
Milwaukee Shines – The Solar Initiative
Client Information:
Milwaukee Shines.
The City of Milwaukee Office of Environmental Sustainability.
Andrea Luecke, Project Manager.
alueck@milwaukee.gov
(414) 286-5593
Mission of the Client:
““Milwaukee Shines” is the name of Milwaukee’s Solar America Cities project. The
Milwaukee Shines team will work to reduce barriers to solar energy implementation-
informational, economic, and procedural. Our goal is to support industry development
by creating a robust level workforce; increasing the number of solar installations
through certification training; and encouraging solar manufacturing businesses to locate
in the city.”
Vision Statement:
The vision of Milwaukee Shines-The Solar Initiative is to help the city of Milwaukee
realize that the benefits of solar power can include a secure, affordable domestic energy
production; movement toward sustainable urban development; production of “green”
energy which will help reduce our carbon footprint; new economic development
opportunities; and the establishment of the city of Milwaukee as a leader in the
alternative energy movement.
Project Scope:
Geographic Information System (GIS) technology will be used to identify the rooftops of
buildings which have the greatest potential for successful installation of solar energy
system. This success will be determined by:
• Adequate Solar Window
• Rooftop suitability
• Responsible property owners

3. The project will be limited to non-residential owner occupied buildings, as well as city
owned buildings within the city of Milwaukee. A previous project, The Milwaukee Solar
System, determined that 3,353 buildings matched the initial criteria set by that project.
For our scope of the project we will start with the 3,353 buildings and refine it down to
150 perspective buildings composed of 100 electric and 50 thermal installations.
Project Objectives:
Milwaukee Shines-The Solar Initiative will work with the City’s project manager to
develop a plan of action to efficiently and effectively:
• Develop criteria for identifying best candidates
• Identify 150 rooftops with the greatest potential for solar energy production
• Analyze aldermanic and TIN districts in a search of a project “champion”
• Develop a webpage to host findings
• Use spatial analysis to calculate what the solar radiation availability would be for
each of the high-rise building rooftops
The end objective for this project is to publicize all the locations of where rooftop solar
panels can be installed through an interactive website. This website will allow the user
to locate the buildings with solar panels and to also calculate what their possibility is for
solar panels.
Conceptual Model:
Milwaukee Shines-The Solar Initiative will serve as a springboard which will launch
Milwaukee into its deserved role as leader in the alternative energy and movement.
Data Model:
Base Map
• Alderman
• City
• City water
• County
• MMSD water
• Parcel base
• Parks
• Solar test
• Streets
• TINS
LIDAR
Solar Parcel
• City solar parcel
• Solar parcel

4. • 5 city solar parcel
• ideal buildings
• 4_5_solar rating
• city candidate
IMPLEMENATATION PLAN
Tasks:
1. Create a list of specific locations that fit the criteria established in the Milwaukee
Solar Project
o Buildings that are greater than 10,000 sq ft useable surface and flat with
no shading causing obstruction(s).
o Buildings that are greater than 10,000 sq ft useable surface with roof
pitch between 10 and 45 degrees oriented within 25 degrees of true
south with no shading causing obstruction.
o Identify 150 roof tops that have the greatest potential for solar energy
projection.
2. Create base maps using parcels, streets, tree point data, MPROP, SEWRPC
imagery, Aldermanic Districts, and Tax Incentive Districts to show locations of
the 150 rooftops.
o These base maps will show the locations that are best suited for solar
panels.
 Parcels, streets, MCAMCLAS data will come from the AGS Library
 Tree Point Data will come from Milwaukee County
 MPROP data will come from City of Milwaukee
3. Analyze aldermanic and TIN districts in a search for a project “champion”.
o The term “project champion” was stated by the client meaning a specific
area with support of the alderman to help gain government and public
support of the solar initiative.
4. Develop a webpage to host results.
5. Use Spatial Analysis to calculate the solar window for each building candidate.

5. o “Solar Window” is another name for figuring out the energy striking the
surface. To do this our group will be using the Solar Analyst model in
ARCGIS to calculate Watt-Hour/m2
at the roof surface of the buildings.
6. Publicize the locations of solar installations though an interactive website.
7. Present and discuss the final project with Milwaukee Shines.
Products:
• Map(s) that incorporate data collected by our group
• Database and data dictionary that comprises all project data
• An interactive website
• Power point presentation
Solar Radiation Analysis
One objective of this project is to analyze all buildings within Milwaukee’s Targeted
Investment Neighborhood (TIN) districts, taking into special consideration those
buildings identified by the Milwaukee Solar System Feasibility Study that are located
within the TIN districts. The Targeted Investment Neighborhood initiative is designed to
sustain and increase owner-occupancy, provide high quality affordable rental housing,
strengthen property values, and improve the physical appearance and quality of life of
neighborhoods.
According the TIN initiative, homeowners in TIN districts may be eligible for $10,000
loans at no interest that are forgiven after 5 years. This is just the kind of incentive that
some home owners need to offset the cost of Solar PV and Thermal installations.
Generally only exterior work is eligible and energy conservation is one of the priorities
of the program, making solar panel installations an excellent way to utilize the program.
Objectives:
• Develop criteria for identifying best candidates for solar photo voltaic and
thermal installations
• Use GIS technology to identify rooftops with the greatest potential for solar
energy production
• Create shapefile and spreadsheet of ideal building candidates

6. • Create maps of TIN districts highlighting best building candidates for solar energy
production
Methods
The first requirement for my analysis was to create as accurate a digital elevation model
for the TIN districts as possible. This was completed by utilizing Milwaukee County
Automated Mapping and Land Information System (MCAMLIS) data. This data includes
the following elevation features:
• Topography Lines
• Topography Points
• Hydrology Lines
• Transportation Lines
• Tree Points
• Tree Lines
• Building Footprint Lines
The topography lines and points, hydrology lines and transportation lines were used to
build a terrain surface that was converted to raster format for our base DEM. The tree
line and building footprint lines had to be cleaned and built into polygons. To build the
tree canopy and buildings, a set of assumptions had to be made concerning tree size
and height and building height. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data was used to
estimate an average for canopy size and height and building heights. The individual
trees were estimated to be 36ft tall with a base of 24ft in diameter and with the base
starting at 24ft from the ground. The tree areas were also estimated to have a 36ft
maximum height and a 24ft base height. The tree points were buffered out at 4 foot
intervals and assigned corresponding heights, the canopies where buffered in at 4 ft
intervals and also assigned corresponding heights. This resulted in four tree canopy
layers at the following heights; 24ft, 28ft, 32ft and 36ft. The building heights were
estimated using Milwaukee Property File (MPROP) data which provided the number of
stories for many buildings and LiDAR data which provided the estimate of 15ft per story.
However, many city owned buildings of importance did not have story information
within MPROP, these buildings heights were either taken directly from the LiDAR data
where applicable or they were estimated by visually counting the number of stories for
each building using Live Earth. The four tree canopy layers and the building layer were
then converted from polygon to raster. It was then possible to add them to the base
DEM using raster addition. In order to avoid the buildings having rooftops that sloped
with the terrain, the footprint areas were clipped out of the DEM so that when the
building layer was added the height values for each individual building were consistent.

7. The complete tree canopy was also clipped by the building layer buffered out 3ft to
eliminate the possibility of the layers overlapping each other. This digital elevation
model, including buildings and trees, was created for the entire city of Milwaukee. The
TIN districts were buffered out 600ft to account for any structures outside the districts
that may shade structures within the districts. The buffered TIN districts were then
extracted from the city DEM for use in the Area Solar Radiation Analysis.
Area Solar Radiation Analysis is used to calculate the insolation, the measure of solar
radiation energy received on a given surface area in a given time, across an entire
landscape. The Solar radiation analysis tools, in the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension,
enables mapping and analysis of the suns effects over a geographic area for specific
time periods. The resultant outputs can be easily integrated with other geographic
information system (GIS) data and can help to model physical and biological processes
as they are affected by the sun. The area input for the analysis was the TIN DEMs and
the time input was set to Dec 21st
, the shortest day of the year, and from 8am -4pm, the
best window of time throughout the day for solar radiation. These inputs were chosen
to give an idea of the best potential during the worst time of the year for solar energy
production. The output in raster format gave values 0-8 representing hours of insolation
over the entire landscape. I converted this output to integer format and then was able
to convert the raster to polygons. I used the Intersect tool to select out the insolation
polygons by building polygon. I was then able to calculate the area for each insolation
polygons and using the total building area calculated the percentage of insolation for
each hour duration value for each building polygon. This required fields that tagged
each insolation polygon to each building polygons and then dissolving the data by these
tags. The criteria that I was given by Milwaukee Shines to establish Ideal building
candidacy was that over 40% of the building rooftop receives 4-8 hours of insolation. I
was able to identify these buildings by selecting out the insolation polygons by building
that had the values of 4-8 hours, then dissolving the data by building polygons and
selecting out the areas that covered over 40% of the total building area. I was then able
to select out the buildings themselves that contained these insolation areas.
Results
Out of a total of 8,819 buildings located within the TIN districts, 7,886 met the Area
Solar Analysis criteria. Below is a breakdown of the building by landuse classification
according to MPROP:
7292 Residential 92%
207 Commercial/Residential 3%
105 Services/Financial 1%
68 Retail/Wholesale <1%
3 Church/Religious <1%

8. 52 Manufacturing <1%
49 Vacant Lots <1%
37 Public <1%
14 Schools <1%
5 Parks <1%
2 Transportation <1%
2 Unclassified <1%
Of the 2,480 building ranked “quite feasible” or “ideal” for solar candidacy by the
Milwaukee Solar System Feasibility Study, 94 were located within the TIN districts. Of
these 94 building, 88 met the Area Solar Analysis criteria. Below is a breakdown of these
buildings according to landuse classification in MPROP:
23 Services/Financial 26%
18 Churches 21%
15 Retail/Wholesale 17%
11 Manufacturing 13%
10 Public 11%
8 Schools 9%
3
Mixed
Commercial/Residential 3%
Point Solar Radiation Analysis
The ‘Point Solar Radiation Analysis’ was used to rank the target buildings from the
Milwaukee Solar System project. Like the Area Solar Analysis, the Point Analysis
required a DEM and buildings as inputs for height and location data. The DEM created
for the city of Milwaukee was used as well as the MCAMLIS building footprints from the
Area Analysis. Since this is a point analysis, a centroid was found for each building of
interest and was placed within the confines of that footprint polygon. Combined with its
corresponding elevation value from the underlying DEM, this provided the spatial
location for each rooftop point required for the analysis. The solar analysis requires all
units to be in meters, therefore, the final product was reprojected in WTM and raster
values (heights) were converted to metric.
The website required a monthly output for the measured insolation levels for each
building point, therefore, the time configuration for the solar analysis tool was set for a
whole year with monthly intervals, and outputs were created for each interval. These
outputs (T0-T11) gave us insolation values (kWh/m2) for each building point in each
month of the year. Total annual insolation was then calculated for each building
rooftop.

9. The final insolation value gave us the ability to rank each building based on its available
solar window. The levels of annual insolation also allow us to make predictions about
the potential levels of solar production for each building, as well as the corresponding
cost and pollution savings.
The Solar Initiative Websites
The purpose of this project is to provide a list of viable candidates for solar rooftop panel
installation for Milwaukee Shines. In order to do this, data had to be collected to determine which
buildings would be the best candidates for solar rooftop panels. Many tasks from building DEM’s
to creating an interactive website were completed during this period.
For the website component of the project, the first step was to use Arc Server to create a site that
would calculate the incoming solar radiation for each of the roof tops. The layers in the website
included downtown ideal buildings, ideal solar buildings, street map, and downtown
orthophotographic LIDAR. Through the use of Arc Server we also changed the header of the
page, installed the Milwaukee Shines logo, and added several tools and queries to the site. This
part of the website development seemed very straight forward with little problems. Below are
several screen shots of the website main page as well as the Solar Milwaukee website showing
what the website can do.
THIS IS A SCREEN SHOT SHOWING THE MAIN PAGE FOR MILWAUKEE SHINES – THE SOLAR
INITIATIVE. THE MAIN PAGE CONTAINS AN INTRODUCTION STATING BRIEFLY WHAT MILWAUKEE
SHINES IS. IT ALSO CONTAINS A DISCLAIMER STATEMENT. THE MAIN PAGE ALSO HAS SEVERAL
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS TO HELP ANSWER QUESTIONS THAT MIGHT BE ASKED. IT ALSO
HAS LINKS TO THE SERVER WEB GUIDE, THE FLEX WEB GUIDE, THE SERVER WEBSITE, AND THE
FLEX WEBSITE.

10. THIS SCREEN SHOT SHOWS THE MAIN PAGE OF SOLAR MILWAUKEE.
THIS IS A SCREEN SHOT OF WHAT THE OUTPUT WILL BE WHEN FINDING A SOLAR POLYGON. THE
COLORED POLYGON IS THE BUILDING THAT WAS SELECTED AND A POINT WAS CREATED IN THE
CENTER OF THE BUILDING IN ORDER TO CALCULATE THE SOLAR RADIATION FROM JANUARY TO
DECEMBER FOR THIS PARTICULAR BUILDING.

11. THIS IS A SCREEN SHOT OF THE SOLAR MILWAUKEE WEBSITE WHEN SEARCHING BY TAX KEY.
THE BUILDING IS HIGHLIGHTED AS WELL AS THE ATTRIBUTE TABLE CONTAINS THE SOLAR
RADIATION INFORMATION FOR THIS PARTICULAR BUILDING FROM JANUARY TO DECEMBER.
Next, the solar tool was created for the websites. Below is a screen shot of what the
solar model looks like. This model was used for the server website as well as the flex website.
THIS SCREEN SHOT SHOWS THE MODEL OF THE PROCESS THAT THE SOLAR RADIATION WIDGET
CONDUCTED. FIRST THE USER USES POLYGONS AS THE INPUT FEATURES. NEXT THE POLYGONS
ARE CONVERTED INTO SOLAR POINTS. FROM THAT POINT, THE OUTPUT IS CALCULATED. THIS
OUTPUT IS THE SOLAR RADIATION FOR THE BUILDING. THE OUTPUT NUMBERS ARE CLASSIFIED
AS t0 TO t11.

12. This tool calculates radiation values on a monthly basis. The variables range from t0 to t11 which
indicates radiation values (WH/ m2
) for each time interval. Therefore the t0 to t11 represents
each month of the year (i.e. t0=Janaury … t11=December). The higher the value the greater the
amount of radiation is being calculated. When tX = 0 where X = 0-11; the rooftop is not receiving
any radiation for that month which means that a structure is blocking the rooftop from receiving
radiation. This structure could be another building or a tree. The feature class created
corresponding to the global radiation or amount of incoming solar insulation (either direct or
diffuse) calculated for each location.
The next step in the development of the website was to use Adobe Flex Viewer to build the
interactive portion of the website. This task was more complicated than the first step. The first
goal in this part of the development was to figure out how Adobe Flex worked as well as figure
out the code that went along with it. Along with figuring out the Flex, the solar radiation widget
and the geoprocessing tool also needed to be figured out in regards to how they worked within
the Flex viewer. The widget and geoprocessing tools allow the user to click on a building polygon
or draw a polygon which will then highlight and calculate all the solar information and saving
potential pertaining to that specific polygon.
The first step in understanding the Flex was to figure out the xml code. Through the use of trial
and error as well as a few test pages, the layers that were used on the Arc Server site, were also
used for the Flex site.
The next step in the process was to get the solar radiation widget to work. To get the solar
widget to work, the xml code had to be deciphered and understood. The intent was to figure out
how the widget worked within another website. From doing research on the widget, the City of
Boston used this widget to calculate radiation for their solar website. This widget is very beneficial
to the interactive portion of the website so it was extremely important that we figure it out. By
getting the widget to work, whoever visits the website can access solar information for their
building. This tool allows the user to select a building of their choice and find beneficial solar
information specifically for that building. Once a building is highlighted and the solar radiation
widget is working, a box in the upper right corner will appear. In this box the first thing which will
appear is a graph showing the solar distribution for an entire year on a monthly basis. With this
graph the user will also be able to move the cursor to a specific point and find out the solar
distribution for that specific time. Another feature of this tool is to allow the viewer to acquire hard
facts showing how installation of solar panels to their building will benefit them in the long run. By
clicking on the pie chart icon in the box, all of the calculations will appear showing things like the
area of the roof, the potential system size, the potential annual output, the potential annual cost
savings, and the potential annual emissions savings.
The next step in the process was to get the geoprocessing tool to work. This tool was similar to
the solar radiation widget. The geoprocessing tool allows the viewer to draw a polygon on a
building and access all of the same information that the solar radiation widget provided. To
understand the geoprocessing tool again the xml code had to be deciphered to figure out the
inputs and outputs. Of the many obstacles encountered in geoprocessing, the largest obstacle
was that the data model just would not function. The polygon tool worked in regards to drawing
the area, however to calculate the area the tool would not work within the Flex viewer. Due to the
geoprocessing problems that were encountered with Flex it was determined that, due to time
constraints, this feature was beyond the scope of the project. Below are several screen shots of
the Flex website.

13. THE ABOVE SCREEN SHOT SHOWS WHAT THE MILWAUKEE SHINES – THE SOLAR INITIATIVE FLEX
WEBSITE LOOKS LIKE. IT SHOWS THE DOWNTOWN AREA AND ALL THE IDEAL SOLAR
CANDIDATES WITHIN THIS AREA.
THIS SCREEN SHOT SHOWS WHAT THE WEBSITE LOOKS LIKE WHEN A BUILDING IS CHOSEN TO
SEE WHAT THE SAVINGS WOULD BE IF SOLAR ROOFTOP PANELS WERE INSTALLED. THE GRAPH
IN THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER SHOWS THE SOLAR RADIATION FOR THE BUILDING WHICH IS
HIGHLIGHTED IN RED.

14. THIS SCREEN SHOT SHOWS THE GRAPHIC PORTION OF THE SOLAR RADIATION TOOL. IT IS MORE
DESCRIPTIVE THEN THE PREVIOUS SCREEN SHOT. IT BREAKS DOWN THE POSSIBLE SAVINGS AS
WELL AS SHOWING THE ROOF AREA, AND ALLOWS YOU TO SEE WHAT THE DIFFERENT SAVINGS
WOULD BE FOR THE BUILDING DEPENDING ON HOW MUCH AREA ON THE ROOF IS AVAILABLE
FOR SOLAR ROOFTOP PANELS.
Metadata for Milwaukee Shines – The Solar Initiative
Common map data
Base maps:
Server Website
Milwaukee County Base map was used. This Base Map comes from the county server
and is currently updated.
Projection:
NAD_1927_State Plane_Wisconsin_South_Fips_4803

15. Geographic Coordinate Systems:
Gcs_North_American_1927
2009_Parks_Milwaukee_County
Source: AGS Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Current as of 2009
Building footprints
Source: AGS Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Current as of 2004/2005
LIDAR
Source: City of Milwaukee
Current as of 2009
Parcels
Source: AGS Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Current as of 1999
Political Boundaries
Source: AGS Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Current as of 2000
City Boundary
Source: AGS Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Current as of 2000
Aldermanic District
Source: AGS Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Current as of 2004
2005_dtm_topo
Source: AGS Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Current as of 2005
Milwaukee solar system_091508
Source: URS Corporation
Current as of September 2008

16. SOLAR MILWAUKEE WEB SITE- WEBGUIDES
SOLAR MILWAUKEE SERVER WEBSITE
This webguide will help guide the user to navigate though the functions that the Solar
Website provides.
This website works the best in Microsoft Internet Explorer but can be viewed in other
web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Crome, and Safari.
The website url : http://gis.sarup.uwm.edu/solar_milwaukee_3

17. Overview
Find Solar Area – Allows user to draw an area to calculate the radiation values for the
roof area that is drawn.
Find By Tax Key – Allows the user to find a building based on a Tax Key number.
Zoom Tools – Allows the user to zoom in and zoom out.
Pan Tool – Allows the user to move and center the map.
Information Tool - Allows the user to point to a specific building and get information
based on the layers that are selected.
Distance Tool – Allows the user to measure distance from one building to another
building.
Here are close ups of the website, and step by step guide on how to use all of the solar
tools:

19. Map Idenifyer Tool
This tool allows the user to identify buildings within the ideal solar candidates layer. The
information shown in the box below allows the user to see the radiation values T=0 to
T=11 that have been calculated for the roof top. The information box also shows the ideal
solar rating, the Tax Key Number and the address of the building.
This tool uses the Downtown Building Footprints layer to calculate the radiation values.
Find By Tax Key
This tool allows the user to enter in a nine digit tax key number and locate the building.

21. Once this tool is executed, the information comes up into the results box located on the
left side of the website. Right click the Ideal_Solar_Canidates layer and zoom into the
selected building.
Click on the Identify tool and click on the building. This will allow a box to appear where
all the information can be gathered.
Hit the arrow to expand the box and get the information.
Click the X in the upper right hand cornor of the box to close the box.
Right click the Find By Tax Key and remove the task .

22. Find Solar Area Tool
To calculate a building that has not been calculated within the buildings layer the
following must be done.
First click on the Solar Area Tool to input the feature.

23. Next create a box around the roof that is going to be calculated.
Then click on the execute tool to calculate the information.

24. Once the area has been calculated, the information can be seen on the left hand side of the
website in the results section. By clicking the plus sign next to Output features, followed
by clicking the plus sign next to Features and then clicking the plus sign next to the O
layer; the user will be able to get the radiation values for the specific roof top.

25. Milwaukee Shines – The Solar Initiative Website Web Guide(Flex Viewer)
This webguide will help guide the user to navigate though the functions that the
Solar Website provides.
Overview
Globe Icon - Allows the user to choose the Live Maps, Overview Map, Bookmark the
map and print the map.
Compass Icon- Allows the user to zoom in, zoom out, full extent, move the map,
zoom previous, and allows zooming next.
Tools Icon – Allows the user to choose which tool they want to use. In this case, the
solar radiation is the only tool that is accessible.
Help Icon – Allows the user to get help with the application.
Select Rooftop – Allows the user to select the rooftop.
Clear Icon - Allows the user to clear what is selected

26. Select Rooftop Tool
This icon allows the user to select the roof top of a building that is shown in the map.

27. Once the roof top is selected the Annual Solar Radiation is calculated in kW/m2. The
graph shows the radiation based on each month. The Peak indicates the most
amount of radiation that is being projected.

28. The Pie Chart Icon
This icon allows the user to see the solar calculations, and allows the user to adjust
the amount of the roof that is being used for the solar panels.

29. The Pie Chart Information
Total Roof Area (m2) – The calculated roof area
Useable Roof Percent - The amount of the roof being considered for the solar panels;
The default is 40%
Potential System Size (kW)
Incoming Solar Radiation (kWh/m2) – The amount of Incoming Solar Radiation
calculated by the solar widget
Potential Annual Cost Savings – The amount of money that will be saved if the
building uses solar panels
Potential Annual CO2 Savings (lbs) – The amount of CO2 saved in lbs.