High-Level Project Summary
SunCatcher is a simple and intuitive app that allows users to access data about solar energy, including hours of sun , sustainability and cost-effectiveness of solar powered renewable energy given a location specified by the user.Everything inside this app is just one tap away and the data is displayed in the easiest possible way since our main priority was to make data accessible for everyone.Home owners can also find interest in this app since it allows users to make calculations of energy generations given an specified amount of solar pannels, and convert that to currency.We strongly believe that applications like ours can help to make people consider solar energy a viable option.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
SunCatcher behaviour is really simple. When the user sets a market on the map the app will automatically get the coordinates of this point and make a request to different API´s in order to get parameters from different databases needed to calculate the information shown in the panel that pops up. This data includes sunlight amount, daily hours of sun and solar cells surface needed to supply an average dwelling with energy . All of this information is calculated dependent on the longitude and latitude of the marker aswell as the current time. SunCatcher uses averages and data records to get the most accurate results posible.
SunCatcher also features a calculator tab that allows the user to input the amount of solar panels they would like to install, and the app will return an aproximation of the energy they would provide yearly and the amount of money saved.
Space Agency Data
From the space agency we have only used the NASA data about kwh per squared meter per day referenced below for calculating the potential electric energy generated by the user as well as the money they are saving. Also we calculated how many squared meters of solar cells would be needed to bear the cost of a standard household. All this information that displays is taken from the average of the last year's same month.
Hackathon Journey
From the beginning, it was pretty clear to us that we had to do the project about this. The main idea came up really quickly so we started coding quite soon. We had previously researched about the different programming languages and we knew that Kotlin was the right option. Besides that, we had been learning and experimenting with its possibilities and features. The first thing that we did was looking at the different data that NASA provided. While some of us were doing that, others tried to set a simple app in which you could look at a map and move around it. After a few tries we were able to work it out. Once the main idea was well defined we started brainstorming about what we wanted it exactly to do and how did we want it to look. We also talked about what information we wanted to display.
After all that, while our programmers started to add buttons and functions to the app we began to talk about the design and the project presentation. Even though it was hard to come up with the perfect idea about how we wanted it to look like, once we agreed on the colour pallet everything was easier. After a few tries we came up with the perfect logo. We made our own logo and video from scratch, including the music.
The most challenging part was when we had to face some technical difficulties with the code. After searching everywhere and trying everything we could think of the supervisors came to help us and we were able to overcome the situation. That is why we would like to thank all of them for being there every time we needed.
Finally we finished the app and made sure that everything worked fine and did the presentation.
Thanks to this project we were able to learn about programming, design and teamwork.
References
1- NASA data for energy per squared meter per day: https://power.larc.nasa.gov/
2-Global electricity domestic consumption: https://yearbook.enerdata.net/electricity/electricity-domestic-consumption-data.html
3- World inhabitants: https://www.worldometers.info/es/poblacion-mundial/#:~:text=Poblaci%C3%B3n%20Mundial%3A%207.8%20Billones%20de%20Personas%20(2021)%20%2D%20Worldometer
4- Sunset and sunrise time: https://sunrise-sunset.org/api
Tags
#app, #solarEnergy, #sun, #energy
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.