Photovoltaic potential of public buildings in a world Heritage city: The case of San Cristóbal de La Laguna (Canary Islands, Spain)

Abstract

Solar photovoltaic energy is increasingly positioned as an excellent renewable energy source to be implemented in energy communities. However, studies on photovoltaic potential are still required in order to enhance the clean energy transition in energy dependent systems, such as oceanic islands. This work is a study of photovoltaic potential of public building roofs in the World Heritage city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna in Tenerife (Canary Islands). The buildings selected for the study are sports centres, educational centres and civic centres, considering optimum and maximum production scenarios. The results showed the electricity generation capacity of each building, with 8811 and 861 MWh capacity for the maximum and optimum scenarios, respectively. In the optimal scenario, 56% of energy would be generated, of which 31% would be consumed on site, and the remaining 25% would be sent to the grid. The main difference is that in the case of optimal photovoltaic systems, economic profitability criteria take precedence, while in the case of maximum photovoltaic systems, the environmental benefits in terms of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere increase considerably. In the latter case, CO2 emissions are reduced by 771%, compared to 75% in the case of optimal photovoltaic systems.