They are using Google's Project Sunroof[1] to do the modeling. The tool uses satellite images of your roof to create the estimates, and accounts for orientation, shading from trees, etc...
He was only allowed to take his 20% project to 100% after his manager wrote up a justification XD
My turn to be pedantic, I guess, but 80 and 443 are only two of many available ports. The internet is much bigger than just the web, even if lots of people never bother to look beyond their browser.
It's kind of comforting to know that my academic and computing experiences thus far are shared both across the globe and across decades.
Isn't it amazing how big of a disconnect there is between "people who are capable of identifying/executing on big ideas" (aka Tim and his manager)....
and "the projects that businesses/agencies want their employees to do"
GMail however is a 20% project. :)