Large-scale evaluation of the suitability of buildings for photovoltaic integration: Case study in Greater Geneva

Abstract

In the context of a rapid and massive deployment or renewable energy and in particular solar photovoltaic, it is necessary to develop methods and tools to guide this deployment. To this end, this work proposes a multicriteria approach for evaluating the suitability of a building to be equipped with photovoltaic (PV) systems (PV suitability). In the present case, technical (roof complexity), economic (payback period), environmental (CO2 reduction), energetic (self-consumption), as well as social (heritage constraint) criteria are considered. These criteria are evaluated for each building of the Greater Geneva Agglomeration (GGA), a cross-border French–Swiss territory of nearly 270 000 buildings. A multicriteria method, ELECTRE TRI, makes it possible to sort these buildings into three categories, A, B, and C, that correspond to “very high,” “high,” and “moderate” PV suitabilities, respectively. Large differences are observed within the 210 municipalities of the GGA since some of them have almost no A-ranked buildings whereas others comprise more than 70% of these buildings. It is shown that, by prioritizing the A-ranked buildings, almost 50% of the annual electricity consumption of the Geneva Canton could be produced by PV systems. Finally, the method developed here offers a decision-aiding tool that could be used at a territory scale to achieve energy transition goals in terms of solar PV deployment.