IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v337y2023ics0306261923002210.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unveiling Fernando de Noronha Island's photovoltaic potential with unmanned aerial survey and irradiation modeling

Author

Listed:
  • Salim, Daniel Henrique Carneiro
  • de Sousa Mello, Caio César
  • Franco, Guilherme Gandra
  • de Albuquerque Nóbrega, Rodrigo Affonso
  • de Paula, Eduardo Coutinho
  • Fonseca, Bráulio Magalhães
  • Nero, Marcelo Antonio

Abstract

The universalization of electricity still presents significant obstacles to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. There are still many remote areas, such as oceanic islands and isolated communities disconnected from the grid, that depend on fossil fuels to make it viable. Fernando de Noronha, a tropical oceanic island in Brazil, is a typical case where replacing the diesel-based power plant for renewable energy is imperative, therefore, it served as a testbed for this investigation. This paper presents the implementation and results of a low-cost framework for assessing the photovoltaic potential of rooftops. Using a real case study, the objective is to explore how effective rooftop photovoltaic systems could be on Fernando de Noronha Island by applying low-cost aerophotogrammetry, geospatial analysis and scenario creation. The first approach was mapping buildings, open spaces and solar obstacles using unmanned aerial photogrammetric survey that delivered high-quality digital elevation surface. The 3D rooftop surfaces fed the solar irradiation models and enabled to compute the photovoltaic potential of suitable rooftops. Findings show that 83.3% of the total building rooftop area was deemed economically viable for photovoltaic installations. Furthermore, 80.0% and 60.0% of the rooftops receive annual irradiation levels >1600 kWh/m2 and 2000 kWh/m2, respectively, indicating high potential for exploiting solar resources on decentralized, highly irradiated rooftops. The scenario with the highest photovoltaic potential is three times higher than the lowest. The results indicate that the suitability of rooftops for various photovoltaic system sizes offers the possibility of deploying a combination of smaller and larger urban photovoltaic installations. Furthermore, the decentralized photovoltaic rooftops can compensate for between 66 and 199% of the estimated annual consumption of 31 GWh in 2031. The method is highly transferrable and limited solely by the availability of sources of geospatial data and coordination with stakeholders. The investigation meets the needs of the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy, therefore meeting the environmental needs of the energy sector by promoting renewable energy for the island which is a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site and Brazilian National Marine Park and Environmental Protected Area. The investigation demonstrated that creating photovoltaic potential scenarios that nurture informed decision-making processes is a crucial initial step in urban renewable energy planning. The pioneering 2000-ha unmanned aerial photogrammetric survey proved to be a cost-efficient method for producing accurate data for modeling the irradiation and photovoltaic potential in urban areas. The investigation fills the literature gap on modeling photovoltaic potential for remote islands by blending unmanned aerial vehicles and geospatial tools.

Suggested Citation

  • Salim, Daniel Henrique Carneiro & de Sousa Mello, Caio César & Franco, Guilherme Gandra & de Albuquerque Nóbrega, Rodrigo Affonso & de Paula, Eduardo Coutinho & Fonseca, Bráulio Magalhães & Nero, Marc, 2023. "Unveiling Fernando de Noronha Island's photovoltaic potential with unmanned aerial survey and irradiation modeling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:337:y:2023:i:c:s0306261923002210
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.120857
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923002210
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.120857?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jäger-Waldau, Arnulf & Kougias, Ioannis & Taylor, Nigel & Thiel, Christian, 2020. "How photovoltaics can contribute to GHG emission reductions of 55% in the EU by 2030," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Byrne, John & Taminiau, Job & Kurdgelashvili, Lado & Kim, Kyung Nam, 2015. "A review of the solar city concept and methods to assess rooftop solar electric potential, with an illustrative application to the city of Seoul," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 830-844.
    3. Bódis, Katalin & Kougias, Ioannis & Jäger-Waldau, Arnulf & Taylor, Nigel & Szabó, Sándor, 2019. "A high-resolution geospatial assessment of the rooftop solar photovoltaic potential in the European Union," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Chen, Qi & Li, Xinyuan & Zhang, Zhengjia & Zhou, Chao & Guo, Zhiling & Liu, Zhengguang & Zhang, Haoran, 2023. "Remote sensing of photovoltaic scenarios: Techniques, applications and future directions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    5. Rathore, Pushpendra Kumar Singh & Chauhan, Durg Singh & Singh, Rudra Pratap, 2019. "Decentralized solar rooftop photovoltaic in India: On the path of sustainable energy security," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 297-307.
    6. Lukač, Niko & Seme, Sebastijan & Dežan, Katarina & Žalik, Borut & Štumberger, Gorazd, 2016. "Economic and environmental assessment of rooftops regarding suitability for photovoltaic systems installation based on remote sensing data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 854-865.
    7. Yildirim, Deniz & Büyüksalih, Gürcan & Şahin, Ahmet Duran, 2021. "Rooftop photovoltaic potential in Istanbul: Calculations based on LiDAR data, measurements and verifications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    8. Sara Deilami & S. M. Muyeen, 2020. "An Insight into Practical Solutions for Electric Vehicle Charging in Smart Grid," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-13, March.
    9. Jangwon Suh & Jeffrey R. S. Brownson, 2016. "Solar Farm Suitability Using Geographic Information System Fuzzy Sets and Analytic Hierarchy Processes: Case Study of Ulleung Island, Korea," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-24, August.
    10. Julieta, Schallenberg-Rodriguez & José-Julio, Rodrigo-Bello & Pablo, Yanez-Rosales, 2022. "A methodology to estimate the photovoltaic potential on parking spaces and water deposits. The case of the Canary Islands," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 1046-1062.
    11. Lee, Taedong & Glick, Mark B. & Lee, Jae-Hyup, 2020. "Island energy transition: Assessing Hawaii's multi-level, policy-driven approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    12. Singh Doorga, Jay Rovisham & Rughooputh, Soonil D.D.V. & Boojhawon, Ravindra, 2019. "High resolution spatio-temporal modelling of solar photovoltaic potential for tropical islands: Case of Mauritius," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 972-987.
    13. Aleksandra Lewandowska & Justyna Chodkowska-Miszczuk & Krzysztof Rogatka & Tomasz Starczewski, 2020. "Smart Energy in a Smart City: Utopia or Reality? Evidence from Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, November.
    14. Aslani, Mohammad & Seipel, Stefan, 2022. "Automatic identification of utilizable rooftop areas in digital surface models for photovoltaics potential assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PA).
    15. Sumit Kalyan & Qian (Chayn) Sun, 2022. "Interrogating the Installation Gap and Potential of Solar Photovoltaic Systems Using GIS and Deep Learning," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-21, May.
    16. Nalini Dookie & Xsitaaz T. Chadee & Ricardo M. Clarke, 2022. "A Prefeasibility Solar Photovoltaic Tool for Tropical Small Island Developing States," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-28, November.
    17. Gassar, Abdo Abdullah Ahmed & Cha, Seung Hyun, 2021. "Review of geographic information systems-based rooftop solar photovoltaic potential estimation approaches at urban scales," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    18. Liu, Jiahong & Mei, Chao & Wang, Hao & Shao, Weiwei & Xiang, Chenyao, 2018. "Powering an island system by renewable energy—A feasibility analysis in the Maldives," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C), pages 18-27.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Özdemir, Samed & Yavuzdoğan, Ahmet & Bilgilioğlu, Burhan Baha & Akbulut, Zeynep, 2023. "SPAN: An open-source plugin for photovoltaic potential estimation of individual roof segments using point cloud data," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    2. Aslani, Mohammad & Seipel, Stefan, 2022. "Automatic identification of utilizable rooftop areas in digital surface models for photovoltaics potential assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PA).
    3. Sredenšek, Klemen & Štumberger, Bojan & Hadžiselimović, Miralem & Mavsar, Primož & Seme, Sebastijan, 2022. "Physical, geographical, technical, and economic potential for the optimal configuration of photovoltaic systems using a digital surface model and optimization method," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    4. Sun, Tao & Shan, Ming & Rong, Xing & Yang, Xudong, 2022. "Estimating the spatial distribution of solar photovoltaic power generation potential on different types of rural rooftops using a deep learning network applied to satellite images," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    5. Chen, Xie & Zhou, Chaohui & Tian, Zhiyong & Mao, Hongzhi & Luo, Yongqiang & Sun, Deyu & Fan, Jianhua & Jiang, Liguang & Deng, Jie & Rosen, Marc A., 2023. "Different photovoltaic power potential variations in East and West China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 351(C).
    6. Zhong, Qing & Nelson, Jake R. & Tong, Daoqin & Grubesic, Tony H., 2022. "A spatial optimization approach to increase the accuracy of rooftop solar energy assessments," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 316(C).
    7. Molnár, Gergely & Cabeza, Luisa F. & Chatterjee, Souran & Ürge-Vorsatz, Diana, 2024. "Modelling the building-related photovoltaic power production potential in the light of the EU's Solar Rooftop Initiative," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 360(C).
    8. Bódis, Katalin & Kougias, Ioannis & Jäger-Waldau, Arnulf & Taylor, Nigel & Szabó, Sándor, 2019. "A high-resolution geospatial assessment of the rooftop solar photovoltaic potential in the European Union," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    9. Primož Mavsar & Klemen Sredenšek & Bojan Štumberger & Miralem Hadžiselimović & Sebastijan Seme, 2019. "Simplified Method for Analyzing the Availability of Rooftop Photovoltaic Potential," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-17, November.
    10. McKenna, R. & Mulalic, I. & Soutar, I. & Weinand, J.M. & Price, J. & Petrović, S. & Mainzer, K., 2022. "Exploring trade-offs between landscape impact, land use and resource quality for onshore variable renewable energy: an application to Great Britain," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    11. Jiang, Hou & Zhang, Xiaotong & Yao, Ling & Lu, Ning & Qin, Jun & Liu, Tang & Zhou, Chenghu, 2023. "High-resolution analysis of rooftop photovoltaic potential based on hourly generation simulations and load profiles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 348(C).
    12. Gómez-Navarro, Tomás & Brazzini, Tommaso & Alfonso-Solar, David & Vargas-Salgado, Carlos, 2021. "Analysis of the potential for PV rooftop prosumer production: Technical, economic and environmental assessment for the city of Valencia (Spain)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 372-381.
    13. Daniel Lugo-Laguna & Angel Arcos-Vargas & Fernando Nuñez-Hernandez, 2021. "A European Assessment of the Solar Energy Cost: Key Factors and Optimal Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-25, March.
    14. Chen, Han & Chen, Wenying, 2021. "Status, trend, economic and environmental impacts of household solar photovoltaic development in China: Modelling from subnational perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 303(C).
    15. Okunlola, Ayodeji & Davis, Matthew & Kumar, Amit, 2022. "The development of an assessment framework to determine the technical hydrogen production potential from wind and solar energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    16. Gassar, Abdo Abdullah Ahmed & Cha, Seung Hyun, 2021. "Review of geographic information systems-based rooftop solar photovoltaic potential estimation approaches at urban scales," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    17. Babak Ranjgar & Alessandro Niccolai, 2023. "Large-Scale Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Power Production Potential Assessment: A Case Study for Tehran Metropolitan Area, Iran," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-14, October.
    18. Kougias, Ioannis & Taylor, Nigel & Kakoulaki, Georgia & Jäger-Waldau, Arnulf, 2021. "The role of photovoltaics for the European Green Deal and the recovery plan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    19. Suntiti Yoomak & Theerasak Patcharoen & Atthapol Ngaopitakkul, 2019. "Performance and Economic Evaluation of Solar Rooftop Systems in Different Regions of Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-20, November.
    20. Ding, Feng & Yang, Jianping & Zhou, Zan, 2023. "Economic profits and carbon reduction potential of photovoltaic power generation for China's high-speed railway infrastructure," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:337:y:2023:i:c:s0306261923002210. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.