The Parametric Design of a Photovoltaic Power System over a Parking Lot

Abstract

The effective planning of urban areas is important in terms of improving both the urban density and the traffic problem. Parking lots should be arranged to manage spaces and traffic at the points where the population is highly dense. On the other hand, installing rooftop solar energy plants over parking lots are highly advantageous in terms of renewable energy production. During the design process of such urban power plants, the area-energy optimization and the shading caused by surrounding buildings have direct effect on overall performance. In this study, firstly a parking lot was designed on an empty parcel within the urban area of İzmir province, with the capacity of 1.704 vehicles, 64 motorcycles and 64 electric vehicle charging stations. In addition, a solar power plant was planned over the parking lot canopies, then a power system was designed by selecting the proper photovoltaic panels and inverters. On the parametric simulation software, which was used to determine the system performance, the solar radiation and shadow simulations on the designed parking lot were run. After that, the electricity generation performances were investigated and comparisons between the parking lot parcels and the selected dates were made. In the conclusion, it was found that 7.006 photovoltaic panels placed over the canopies with an area of 24.995 m2 are able to generate 8.084 MWh/year electricity.