From Reality Capture to Renewable Energy: Visualizing RWE’s Friendsville Solar
How Implexus brought site data, real world imagery, and proposed equipment together for RWE
A proposed solar project can be measured in megawatts, acres, and miles of infrastructure. But those numbers cannot answer a question many people have when they first hear about a project: What will it look like here?
RWE’s Friendsville Solar project is in development in Wabash County, Illinois, on land formerly used for coal mining. Planned to generate 500 megawatts of solar power, it represents another chapter in the land’s history. Implexus worked with RWE to make that proposed future visible through renderings, animations, and immersive site views.
Build from the real site
We began with the information that defines the place: site GIS data, topography mapping, drone footage, and 360° images captured on site. We combined that context with 3D models of the proposed renewable energy equipment to create views grounded in Friendsville’s actual terrain and surroundings.
The 360° composite images place proposed solar arrays and supporting structures within site photographs. Rather than asking viewers to translate a technical plan into a mental picture, these views let them look around and understand the proposal from a recognizable position on the ground. Renderings and animations provide complementary perspectives, showing both individual views and how the larger project comes together.
Preserve the details that make a place familiar
A site is more than its property lines and elevation data. Adjacent homes, a farmer’s equipment, and community landmarks are part of how people recognize and remember it.
We used Gaussian splats to capture existing features like these in three dimensions. They give the project team a detailed record of the site’s historic existing context and a way to bring that context into visual conversations about its future. Keeping those familiar details visible matters: it helps people understand a proposed change in relation to the place they already know.
Each visual format answers a different question. GIS and topography establish where things belong. Drone footage and 360° imagery show the site as it is experienced.
Gaussian splats retain the texture of existing places and objects. Proposed 3D equipment models show what could be built. Brought together, they make the project easier to examine from both a technical and a human perspective.
That is the purpose behind our work. We use the available data and the right visual tools to help teams communicate clearly, invite informed questions, and see how a proposal relates to its surroundings.
Friendsville Solar is still taking shape. Our work with RWE helps people see both the future being planned and the place where it will happen.
Additional information: https://americas.rwe.com/our-energy/solar-energy/solar-projects-and-locations/friendsville-solar/
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