Solar fractions of SHIP plants considering the availability of roof area based on OpenStreetMap data

Abstract

Solar heat for industrial processes (SHIP) can be a key technology to decarbonize the industrial heat demand world-wide. Several national studies use either a bottom-up or a top-down-approach to assess the potential of solar process heat using estimated fixed solar fractions. Due to limited area available for the installation of solar collectors and the seasonality of the load profile, this solar fraction cannot be achieved in all cases. To address this limitation, another estimated factor is used in those studies. However, the impact of the lack of free area on solar fractions and overall solar potential has not been studied in detail so far. Thus, a dataset with load profiles and roof areas from OpenStreetMap GIS data from 489 German companies from secondary and tertiary sector is set up in this study. Based on the standardized pre-design methodology of the VDI 3988 guideline, the evaluations show that one third of the regarded companies lack sufficient roof area whereas two thirds can provide their summer heat demand with solar collectors. Furthermore, the study shows that an ambient temperature dependent heat demand limits the solar potential in terms of solar fraction even more than the available roof area.