Prospects of photovoltaic rooftops, walls and windows at a city to building scale

Abstract

Many cities across the world are committing to deep decarbonisation efforts. While solar photovoltaics (PV) will play a critical role in this pursuit, the role of rooftop and facade-integrated PVs within the urban landscape is yet to be fully understood. This work presents an analysis into the solar energy harvesting potential of PVs integrated as building rooftops, walls, and windows at various spatial resolutions that range from city to building scale within the City of Melbourne, Australia, as a contemporary case study. It further investigates the relationship between calculated electricity production from such PVs with the urban morphology, seasonal variation and the measured electricity consumption by the local distribution network service providers. The results indicate that PV rooftops are responsible for the largest share of the city’s solar energy potential. However, for individual blocks with high densities of high-rise and glazed buildings, it is shown that the PV potential from windows becomes more prominent. The technical workflow presented here will enable different cities to facilitate decision-making on the PV implementation in urban environments.