Your Solar Soiling Report

📱 Your report works right here on your phone. For the full interactive map, open this page on a computer.

Your rooftop

This system loses about — a year to regular soiling

System size —

Panel area traced —

Racking angle —

Panel direction —

Panel layout —

How well it is aimed —

Persistent Soiling

Persistent Soiling ranks field-inspection priority from measured low tilt and nearby canopy. In this county, elevated multi-return lidar signals supply the canopy measure. Panel direction and portrait/landscape layout are shown above as inspection context. A field check confirms residue; production history or a calibrated assessment estimates its loss percentage and cleaning value.

What the dirt costs

Regular soiling loss —

Regular soiling energy / year —

Regular soiling cost / month —

Seasonal recovery from an early-July clean —

3% Persistent Soiling energy at risk on the selected panel group, if confirmed —

3% Persistent Soiling energy at risk over 2 years, if confirmed —

Persistent Soiling remains unmeasured until site evidence supports a loss percentage. These rows show energy at risk before cleaning efficacy. The combined scenario below applies the selected cleaning method's stated removal fraction to a confirmed loss and charges the visit once.

Estimated for a typical setup. Open the calculator to personalize.

Where do these numbers come from?

Your system size is estimated from county aerial imagery: we trace detected panels, then convert the area to kilowatts at 5.41 square metres per kilowatt, a ratio checked against 130 local building permits.

The loss percentage is a Santa Cruz average drawn from local weather and air-quality records. Your system size comes directly from the aerial photograph, and size decides whether the loss is $9 a year or $460. (Re-read off the published data 2026-08-30: houses 20 kW and under run $9 to $461 a year, a typical one $101. The handful of warehouse roofs in the set go far higher.)

The racking angle and the compass direction are measured too, from public lidar returns inside the outline we traced. They describe how the panels sit and how much sun the roof collects. The Regular Soiling estimate comes from county weather and air-quality records; the Persistent Soiling screen adds each panel group's racking angle and nearby canopy.

Talk to us about this roof →

The public tool is free. Partner support can expand coverage, tailored reports, and validation. Prefer to talk? Call (831) 216-8749.

What can one cleaning recover?

One visit can address seasonal buildup and confirmed Persistent Soiling.

Regular dust accumulates through Santa Cruz's roughly six-month dry season. The model schedules an effective clean in early July, then values the power protected over the final three dry-season months. A full scrub recovers about 45% of annual Regular Soiling cost; a basic rinse recovers about 35%. The coastal seasonal baseline is one component of the decision. Heavier dry-season buildup, lower service prices, and confirmed Persistent Soiling can change the result.

Persistent Soiling follows a different clock. Pollen films, cemented deposits, and bio-growth can survive winter rain and keep reducing output year-round. The Persistent Soiling screen flags the highest 10% of panel groups for visual inspection using racking angle and nearby canopy. A field check confirms residue; production history or a calibrated assessment estimates its loss. The report then adds conditional persistent recovery to seasonal recovery and compares their sum with one service cost.

Two soiling mechanisms, two time horizons. See how the screening model works →

How the screening model works

Regular and Persistent Soiling require different decisions.

Regular Soiling is ordinary dust and pollen that builds during the dry season and resets with winter rain. Persistent Soiling is residue that carries across seasons: mineral edge bands, sticky pollen films, or biological growth. A clean can protect only the remaining dry-season months for the first layer, while a confirmed persistent layer can recover value across a full year.

Racking angle is the strongest current Persistent Soiling signal.

Flat racks retain particles and drain less effectively, so racking angle supplies 70% of the current inspection score. Nearby tree canopy supplies the other 30%, using both canopy amount and distance. The score is a transparent prioritization rule, ready to be recalibrated when inspections or production data supply ground truth.

Edge bands can matter even when panel electronics isolate modules.

A dirty lower edge can shade cells and reduce output on the affected module. Modern panel-level electronics localize that loss within the affected module, which makes the visible evidence and racking details especially useful during inspection. The report records portrait or landscape layout as context for examining the downhill edge of each panel group.

The map now finds the arrays that deserve a closer look.

The weather model gives each mapped system a defensible Regular Soiling baseline. The Persistent Soiling screen then highlights the highest-risk physical settings, roughly one in ten lidar-screened panel groups. California monitoring shows a meaningful heavy-soiling tail as well, so the useful job is finding the arrays where a seasonal clean or a persistent-loss inspection can return real energy.

How the two-layer model works →

Personalize these estimates Open the calculator → Put in your own system size, electricity rate, and conditions.

Loading array data…

Each dot is one household. Zoom in to see the panels themselves.

Every property we mapped, ordered by annual Regular Soiling cost. System size drives most of the spread and comes directly from the photograph. The shared weather baseline gives this tab its county-wide context; the Persistent Soiling tab ranks individual panel groups for inspection.

Commercial systems occupy the top of this list: — of the — properties are over 20 kW and — are over 100 kW, which is a warehouse roof and not a house.

Only what is in the current map view

#	Regular Soiling / yr	System size	Panel groups

Panel groups with a usable lidar roof-plane and canopy reading, highest Persistent Soiling inspection-priority score first. The score is 70% low-tilt exposure and 30% nearby canopy exposure inferred from lidar. A visual inspection confirms residue; production history or a calibrated assessment estimates its loss percentage and supports a cleaning decision.

Only the highest-scoring 10% of screened panel groups are marked for visual inspection. Panel direction and portrait/landscape layout appear on the roof report as inspection context and will become score inputs when field data supports calibrated weights.

Only what is in the current map view

#	Persistent score	Racking	Nearest canopy	Screen result