Loughborough University
Browse
Diane_PVSAT2018_Paper_Final.pdf (348.13 kB)

Estimating rooftop capacity for PV: Are we asking the right question?

Download (348.13 kB)
conference contribution
posted on 2018-05-22, 12:18 authored by Diane Palmer, Ian R. Cole, Tom BettsTom Betts, Ralph Gottschalg
Precise estimation of solar energy potential on pitched roofs is crucial for modelling photovoltaic (PV) installation scenarios. However, there is no national database of building characteristics in the UK. This paper begins by reviewing and testing a range of existing techniques for identifying roof characteristics. These all attempt to estimate roof area with varying degrees of accuracy. Rather than attempting to achieve this, a method is developed which assesses each roof to discover whether it is suitable for PV installation. That is, its properties should allow the installation of at least a minimum size photovoltaic system. This contribution provides a tool to assess PV potential on city-wide scales. It develops a pixel-based approach to estimation of solar energy potential over pitched roofs. This is achieved by a combination of publicly available building outline maps and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data. These are analysed by using a simple statistical technique within a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) environment. The accuracy of the new method is known, following validation against a large housing database. The method is mathematically simple. It is suitable for estimating rooftop capacity of mixed housing type developments.

Funding

This work has been conducted as part of the research project ‘Joint UK-India Clean Energy Centre (JUICE)’ which is funded by the RCUK's Energy Programme (contract no: EP/P003605/1).

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Published in

Proceedings 14th Photovoltaic Science, Applications and Technology Conference (PVSAT-14)

Citation

PALMER, D. ... et al, 2018. Estimating rooftop capacity for PV: Are we asking the right question?. IN: Proceedings of the 14th Photovoltaic Science, Applications and Technology Conference (PVSAT-14), London, UK, 18-19 April 2018.

Publisher

© The Solar Energy Society

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2018

Notes

This is a conference paper.

Publisher version

Language

  • en

Location

London

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC