Google will begin selling map data to companies developing solar products, with the goal of making $100 million in its first year

Google intends to sell new mapping APIs that will enable businesses to create products that use energy and environmental data.

According to recent announcement, Google intends to license new sets of mapping data to a variety of companies for use in developing renewable energy products, with the goal of earning up to $100 million in its first year. The company intends to sell access to new APIs (application programming interfaces) containing solar and energy data, as well as air quality data.

A solar API, which might be used by solar installers such as SunRun and Tesla, will be among the new products. Aurora Solar is an energy and solar design firm. Google also sees consumer prospects with real estate firms such as Zillow and Redfin, hospitality firms such as Marriott Bonvoy, and utilities such as PG&E.

According to one document, Google intends to sell API access to individual building data as well as aggregated data for all buildings in a specific city or county. According to documents, the corporation claims to have data for over 350 million structures, a huge increase from the 60 million buildings stated for Project Sunroof in 2017.