The Urban Rooftop Photovoltaic Potential Determination

Elham Fakhraian,Alireza Nameni,Marc Alier,Maria José Casañ Guerrero,Francesc Valls Dalmau

doi:10.3390/su13137447

Elham Fakhraian, Alireza Nameni + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137447

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jul 2, 2021
Citations: 7	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Abstract

Urban areas can be considered high-potential energy producers alongside their notable portion of energy consumption. Solar energy is the most promising sustainable energy in which urban environments can produce electricity by using rooftop-mounted photovoltaic systems. While the precise knowledge of electricity production from solar energy resources as well as the needed parameters to define the optimal locations require an adequate study, effective guidelines for optimal installation of solar photovoltaics remain a challenge. This paper aims to make a complete systematic review and states the vital steps with their data resources to find the urban rooftop PV potential. Organizing the methodologies is another novelty of this paper to create a complete global basis for future studies and improve a more detailed degree in this particular field.

Highlights

This study aims to review the various methodologies available for determining the urban rooftop PV potential and states the best available methods to create a complete global basis for future research
The results indicated that photovoltaic installation on facades had 13% of the economic potential
Determining the overall rooftop photovoltaic potential by finding and integrating each step’s suitable points based on the previous steps. This pathway is called the hierarchical methodology for rooftop photovoltaic potential determination

Summary

Introduction

Due to the rise of urban area migration, this fraction is estimated to reach 70% by 2050 This leads to urban energy consumption increase to 75% of global energy demand estimated by 2030 [1]. Urban building rooftops provide promising locations for solar photovoltaic installations [4] and can contribute effectively to make nearly net-zero energy buildings [3]. Rooftop solar photovoltaics can be considered an effective solution for urban energy management to solve urban energy requirements and environmental problems [1]. Optimal photovoltaic (PV) installation research has started to make progress mostly in developed European and American counties [1], an efficient methodology for determining rooftop solar photovoltaic potential remains a challenge [4]

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