Solar potential assessment over canal-top using geospatial techniques

Abstract

This study has been carried out to assess the solar potential over canal-top. Remote sensing, geographic information system (GIS), and cloud environment have been applied to assess the solar potential available over canal-top in Roorkee Tehsil, India. Satellite image from Google Earth has been downloaded to extract the usable area for solar photovoltaic (PV) over Ganga canal-top. A geodatabase has been created using QGIS, by digitizing the canal within Roorkee Tehsil. Global horizontal irradiance (GHI) has been taken from a pyranometer and website developed and maintained by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), United States, in collaboration with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India, for calculations. These GHI values have been converted into a tilted GHI to get an accurate solar potential assessment. A Perl script has been developed to convert the GHI into the tilt GHI. A solar potential assessment of the Salhapur village has been performed. Buffer analysis over canal has been performed to estimate the number of villages and towns for solar potential assessment. Buffer analysis over canal shows that 83% of towns and 46% of villages can be benefitted with the canal-top solar energy in Roorkee. The average solar potential assessed over Ganga canal-top for 15 years, i.e., from 2000 to 2014 is 12.746 GWh/year. The instantaneous value (18 September 2018) of solar potential at canal-top using pyranometer data is 1.85 GW. It is sufficient to fulfill the requirements of farmers, villages, towns, and educational institutes at Roorkee.